UPDATE: Israel granted Neda with asylum and she was due to fly to Israel on Monday 7 August 2017 – However, she never boarded her flight. She was arrested by Turkish police and is to be handed over to Iranian officials.

Read more about it here: https://www.cufi.org.uk/news/iranian-journalist-arrested-in-turkey-before-boarding-flight-to-israel/

 

ORIGINAL:

Tomorrow, 5th August, Turkey is planning to deport journalist Neda Amin back to her home country of Iran where she faces death by hanging, all because she writes for an Israeli publication.

Turkey is defying the United Nations that has placed Neda Amin as a refugee and is planning to send her back to her own country tomorrow. Turkey is accusing Neda of spying for the Israeli government while Iran sees Neda as a traitor and an enemy of the state, all because she has worked for an Israeli publication. The punishment for this “crime” in Iran is death by hanging.

“My return to Iran would mean torture, rape, and, in the end, execution,” Neda writes in a desperate letter to the human rights organisation UN Watch.

UN Watch started a petition which has reached over 7,000 signatures. To add your name click here.

Neda, 32, had to leave Iran in 2014 after having been arrested several times due to her articles and books. One of her books, Zenjir (“The Chain”) has been banned in Iran.

“Zenjir is a feminist book about the oppression of women in Iran,” she said. “One of my arrests in the country was due to that book. The pressure from the government would not stop so I had to leave.”

Neda arrived in Turkey in the same year. She now writes several blogs and,  among other things, works for an Israeli publication – the Persian edition of the Times of Israel. She is pro-Israel.

In May 2015, she became a refugee recognized by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The document granted to Neda by the UNHCR states that “as a refugee, she should be protected from forcible return to a country where she would face threats to her life or freedom.”

However, Neda was sent a notice by Turkish immigration authorities on July 5, which stated that her application for international protection has been rejected. “If you do not apply for an authorized administrative court or do not inform our provincial directorate of your application to the court in 30 days, you will be deported. And if you do not want a re-entry ban to be imposed on you, leave Turkey within the stated period,” the notice added.

Neda said that she went to the UN office in Turkey but the UN authorities refused to help her. “They told me if Turkey removes my status as a refugee, there is nothing that they can do about it.

“I am very scared,” Neda Amin told German publication BILD. “I have done nothing wrong, and the United Nations recognise me as a refugee, but certain Turkish authorities have me in their sights. I cannot go back to Iran. I just want to go to a different country where I can be safe.”

Please pray for Neda and sign the petition.