* Secretary of State Pål Lønseth (Ap) says it is "serious" for UNE to send out asylum seekers with protection needs. The Government is now investigating the forced deportation of Rahim Rostami (19) to Iran.
* Ny Tid brings new information about Rahim's status: Hjelpeverge Frode Olsen talks about Rahim's last words in Norway. And here is Rahim's greeting to Norway from the torture prison Evin.
* UNE did not investigate the death sentence against Rostami, but relied on its own "country info". The Iranian regime has now sent out a hate message against asylum seekers.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Development. Both the Government and the Immigration Board have now begun to work intensely to find out what has happened to the forced-Kurdish-Iranian Rahim Rostami (b. 16.06.91). 9. On February, the 19-year-old asylum seeker was handed over by the Norwegian police to the Iran regime in Tehran.
Late Friday night, State Secretary Pål Lønseth (Labor Party), who works for acting Minister of Justice Grete Faremo, sent the following SMS to Ny Tid's journalist:
«The Ministry of Justice has asked the Immigration Board (UNE) for a report on the case. UNE has reported that they are working to clarify whether the allegations are correct. I'm glad
for. It is serious if it turns out that misjudgements have led to the return of a person in need of protection, »
writes Lønseth to Ny Tid.
This happens after the weekly magazine Ny Tid's website on March 23 revealed that Rostami, known from NRK Focal Point, was forcibly dispatched from Norway and placed right on a solitary cell in the Iranian regime's torture prison Evin.
Now family and friends fear that the young man may be executed. In this case, it will be the first time that it has been documented that Norwegian immigration authorities have sent an asylum seeker right back to a possible death cell in his home country.
Olsen stands up
After several days of work, UNE has not been able to dispute anything in Ny Tid's articles about the Rahim case. On February 9, two Norwegian policemen, who were with Rostami on the plane from Trandum to Tehran, handed him over to Iranian police. Since then, Rostami has not been seen on the loose. According to translated documents by the Police Immigration Unit, he was sentenced to death by stoning on 16 April 2008, in the court of the Kurdish hometown of Sardasht.
Ny Tid has a copy of the death sentence, both in the original language Farsi and in Norwegian. These have been dealt with by UNE before the chair of the board Wenche Gran made its deportation decision 5. July 2010.
Ny Tid has received confirmation from several sources, including through contact with the family, that Rostami was driven straight from Khomeini airport to the mullah regime. notorious Evin prison – where enemies of society sit and torture is commonplace.
Now Senja resident and former assistant guard Frode Olsen shows up and tells about Rahim's greetings from Evin prison and to "friends in Norway". This is how Olsen talks about the last words on the phone from the 19 year-old, like 8. February was arrested in a bank near the residence in Jessheim.
- I got a call from Rahim on February 8. He was then at Trandum [at Gardermoen airport, ed. note]. He was arrested by the Police Immigration Unit the same day and was to be sent to Tehran the next day. He asked me to call the lawyer to find out if there was anything we could do to prevent the deportation. However, it turned out not to be, says Olsen to Ny Tid
- What did you say to him on the phone? 
- I asked him to let me know and contact me as soon as he came to Tehran, to tell him that he was fine. He promised to do so. But we have not received any such telephone since.
- How was he during the phone call from Trandum?
- He was very sad, but he did not cry. Rahim thanked us for everything we had done. Then he said "have it". I said that too.
- And then?
- Then the conversation was over, Olsen answers.
Evin Prison
Verge Frode Olsen lives in Skrolsvik on Sør-Senja in Troms municipality. Olsen has had Rostami living with him for months, after the young boy became famous then NRK Focus in November 2009 presented his documentary "Sky Gray".
Rostami stayed then filmed as a spokesperson for asylum seekers on the Senjahesten asylum reception, when he spoke good Norwegian and criticized the UDI for the conditions. He lost shortly after receiving the spot. Rostami came to Norway as a minor, solitary asylum seeker, 17 year old autumn 2008.
One week after Rostami was sent to Iran, about 16. February, Frode Olsen receives a phone call from one of Rostami's friends in Norway:
- The friend told me that Rahim had ended up in the Evin prison in Iran. First we learned that he could stay 
released against a large bail. About ten days ago, we learned that it was no longer possible to get him out on bail. What is disappointing is that we do not know why he is imprisoned or what he is accused of, says Frode Olsen.
As Ny Tid reported on Wednesday, the Iranian authorities first set a bail amount of as much as 100 million toman (old currency that is still used in practice, together with rial, editor's note) or about 700.000 kroner, to get Rostami out. About March 15, however, the family was informed that this bail option had then been removed.
Greetings from the prison
In recent days, Olsen has kept in constant contact with family and friends of Rostami. Ny Tid knows that the 19-year-old has been visited in prison. He is said to have been visited, where he has been allowed to talk to others through a glass wall.
And through friends and acquaintances, the words of the imprisoned 19 year-old in Iran have reached Senja:
- We have received a greeting from Rahim in prison: He has greeted us so much, says Frode Olsen.
Ny Tid can today report that UNE / UDI should not have conducted investigations to find out whether the verdict documents from Sardasht, which indicate Rajm – stoning to death – are real or not. In his decision of 5.7.2010 July XNUMX, Wenche Gran, chair of the tribunal, does not rely on the Iranian court documents, as they are "copies, and therefore cannot be examined for authenticity".
She admits that according to the documents "in absentia, Rostami is doomed to stoning". But instead of being able to point to investigations that could confirm that such a verdict should be handed down in Sardasht the 16. April 2008, Gran refers only to general Iran info from Norwegian government websites:
"UNE further notes that cf. available country knowledge, Iranian courts do not issue death sentences in absentia. The complainant would, cf. country knowledge, in any case have been sentenced to death because he is unmarried… »
At the same time as Pål Lønseth (Labor Party) in the Ministry of Justice tells Ny Tid that the Government now asks UNE to explain the case, but he has full confidence in UNE:
"However, I have confidence that this will be closely followed by UNE, possibly in collaboration with the foreign service," Lønseth writes.
Ask for Iran stop
On Wednesday, Iran called on Human Rights that Iran's forced returns are halted, pending clarification in the Rahim case.
23. February became clear that there are no longer forced returns to Greece, nor to Libya and the Ivory Coast. But some similar deportation stops to Iran are not planned:
"It is not relevant for the government to instruct a general halt to returns to Iran," Lønseth writes.
But Ny Tid can point out here that the Iranian regime in a new dramatic development has come out with information about prosecuting returned asylum seekers. In an editorial on Thursday, February 17, in the regime newspaper Iran-newspaper.com, it says, with orders to the press and authorities to spread the word:
"According to Article 7 of the Islamic Penal Code, any Iranian citizen who has gone abroad, committed a crime and returned to Iran will be prosecuted, provided that this person in his asylum application is charged with propaganda against the system… Applicants who are not allowed to travel abroad are also recommended to avoid such methods and lies. " (Translated from Farsi by Ny Tid, see original here, press editorial column to the far right)
Norwegian doctor and human rights activist Mahmood Amiry-Mogahham is the leader of Iran's Human Rights International. He comments on Lønseth's statements as follows:
- The fact that Rahim is in Evin prison, by definition means that he should not have been sent back, and that he needed protection. His arrest may be related to the case he had to flee from Iran for, or a general tightening by the Iranian authorities. Therefore, the return of Iranian asylum seekers must be stopped for the time being. Norwegian authorities must find out Rahim's situation as soon as possible. It is urgent for Rahim, says Amiry-Moghaddam in Iran Human Rights.
At the same time, it appears that the government is working on a parliamentary report on children on the run, which will be dealt with before the summer. This is stated in the main issue which is now posted on the Government's website. On the website it says:
"You are invited to contribute to the work on the new announcement to the Storting about children on the run, which the government is submitting before summer 2011."
