By IRNA,
London : The only terrorist to survive the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London, Fowzi Nejad, is finally being released from prison but is neither being deported from the UK nor granted asylum.
“We do not give refugee status to convicted terrorists,” a British government source told IRNA. Nejad instead is being given only temporary leave to remain in the UK for six months, when his status will be reviewed.
“Our aim is to deport people as quickly as possible but the law requires us to first obtain assurances that the person being returned will not face certain death. In the meantime a person would be put on extremely tight reporting restrictions,” the source said.
Nejad, who claimed to be part of a the so-called Democratic Revolutionary Front for Arabistan financed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, has so far spent the last 28 years in a closed prison after receiving five life sentences.
He was the only one of six terrorists to survive the storming of the Iranian Embassy, after crack SAS troops were reportedly ordered to take no prisoners when the building was burnt down.
Two hostages were killed during the six-day siege in April 1980, which some have linked to the aborted US attempt to invade Iran a few days later that ended in a debacle at Tabas.
The length of Nejad’s life tariffs have been an issue for the last few years after previously having appeals for his release reportedly rejected by parole boards.
His trial in 1981 was dramatically halted after a few days of starting when he suddenly changed his plea to guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder, false imprisonment, firearm possession and two accounts of manslaughter.