A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Turkey-based Iranian journalist granted asylum in Israel
Turkey-based blogger for Times of Israel's Persian-language website had been battling the deportation order in Turkish courts
Tuesday 8 August 2017
A Turkey-based Iranian blogger who was facing imminent deportation back to Iran has been granted asylum in Israel.
Neda Amin, a blogger for the Times of Israel’s Persian-language website,
had been battling in the Turkish courts a deportation order from Iran
and had appealed to human rights organisations to intervene on her
behalf.
On Sunday Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri confirmed that Israel had offered the 33-year-old Iranian asylum.
“This is a journalist whose life is in real danger simply for writing
columns for an Israeli news site. In these clear humanitarian
circumstances, I have authorised her entry without hesitation,” Deri
said in a statement.
But reports began to emerge that Turkish authorities had arrested Amin
when she failed to board a scheduled flight from Turkey to Israel on
Monday.
Turkey wants to deport Iranian journalist - “I am facing torture, rape, and execution” http://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/bild-international/turkey-wants-to-deport-iranian-journalist-neda-amin-52742216.bild.html?wtmc=twttr.shr …
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely clarified on Monday that Amin’s
plans to come to Israel had been delayed for “personal reasons” and that
she would be arriving in Israel “in the coming days”.
Amin fled Iran for Turkey three years ago but was expected to be deported to Iran in the next few days.
Her cause was picked up by UN Watch, a Geneva-based lobby group with
strong ties to Israel, which launched a petition that claimed Amin had
been receiving threats from Iranian intelligence while in Turkey.
“They [the Turkish authorities] kept asking me why I wrote for an
Israeli newspaper and with whom I have connections in Israel. Although I
repeatedly said I am only a journalist, they accused me of being a spy
for Israel,” she told UN Watch.
“My return to Iran would mean torture, rape, and, in the end, execution.”
Amin also appealed to the United Nations in Turkey to protect her on the
grounds that the UN had previously designated her a refugee there in
2015.
Her cause was also championed by the Israeli Journalists Association,
which submitted a request for asylum in her name to the interior
ministry.
In the accompanying letter, members of the association argued that Amin
was being persecuted for her job and that her life was in danger should
she be sent back to Iran.
“Neda fled from Iran to Turkey three years ago and she is currently
being investigated by Turkish authorities for baseless accusations of
spying for Israel,” members of the Journalists Association wrote in its
request.
“Amin is expected to be arrested immediately upon arrival in Iran and is
in danger of execution because of her journalistic work,” her brother
wrote in a separate letter sent to Aryeh Deri.
Granting Amin asylum is a rare move on the part of Israeli authorities
as hostility between the two countries means that Iranians are generally
not admitted to Israel.
She will be the second Iranian figure to be granted asylum in Israel in
recent years following poet Payam Feili who took up refuge there in
2016.