A 38-year-old Christian convert, who says he would face imprisonment, execution and separation from his British wife and daughter if deported to Iran, has once again applied for asylum to the U.K.’s Home Office, as his appeal was earlier rejected because he wasn’t able to name Judas as the betrayer of Jesus at an immigration hearing.
Reza Karkah from Bradford, who fled Iran for the U.K. in 2003, said if he’s deported, Iranian authorities would punish him for his conversion to Christianity, said the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting his case.
At an earlier immigration hearing, Karkah found it difficult to understand the 150 questions he was asked, including his favorite passage from the Bible, and identifying the betrayer of Jesus and the denomination into which he was baptized, according to The Times (of London). Unable to answer some of the questions correctly, his application was rejected as the judge was not convinced he was a real Christian.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, stressed, “Reza Karkah is the real deal. A courageous man transformed by the gospel and the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. At stake here is not just the life of Reza, but also his equally brave yet vulnerable wife, and their beautiful daughter.”
If he is deported, his wife, Leigh Riley, would find it difficult to look after their 4-year-old daughter, Rosie, Karkah said. “I am afraid that my daughter will think I have abandoned her if I was deported.”
“I feel weighed down and that my life is on hold. Knowing that I could be snatched off the street makes me nervous about leaving the house. We pray each time we go out that Jesus will have mercy on us. I now have a new life and a new hope. To think that this could be taken from me in a moment is horrible.”
Leigh, who was born in Yorkshire, said, “When I was down and out on the streets, meeting Reza changed my life. He was the first person who was kind to me. Now we are a family and I am a mother to a beautiful four-year-old daughter. I don’t even want to think about what they might do to my husband if he was returned to Iran. You hear such terrible stories.”
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Anugrah Kumar
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