KEY POINTS:
An Iranian overstayer's lawyer says he will be appealing a decision to refuse him refugee status.
Ali Panah, who was released on bail from Auckland Remand Prison in September after a 53-day hunger strike, applied for refugee status after saying he would be killed or tortured if he was returned to Iran as he had converted to Christianity.
His lawyer Grant Illingworth discovered on Monday that the Department of Labour's refugee status branch had refused to grant him refugee status .
"I have been instructed to seek an appeal, which will go to the Refugee Status Appeal Authority," Mr Illingworth told NZPA. "We are in the process of putting that in place."
He said the appeal was likely to be months away from being heard.
Mr Illingworth said there was a draft law prepared by the Iranian government before the country's legislature which would see a mandatory death penalty for any Muslim who converted to another religion.
"I was disappointed the refugee status branch didn't wait until it knew if this law had been passed before making its decision," he said.
"It could take months before that decision is made but this is a matter of life and death for Mr Panah."
He said Mr Panah was very disappointed at the decision on his refugee status.
Mr Panah sought asylum when he arrived in New Zealand and was detained for 20 months for refusing to sign documents that would lead to his deportation to Iran.
Some politicians questioned the genuineness of his religious conversion but Anglican Archbishop David Moxon said after visiting him in prison that he was convinced by his Christianity.
Amnesty International in September said Christian converts such as Mr Panah were unlikely to face the death sentence in Iran but it opposed the return of proven Christian converts as it was likely they would be tortured.
"Although there has been no known use of the death penalty in Iran for `apostasy' or conversion for more than 10 years, converts could face attack by civilian groups, fabricated charges, a ban on employment, detention and torture," its New Zealand refugee co-ordinator Margaret Taylor said.
Amnesty International estimated more than 150 people were given the death penalty last year and at least 176 in 2006.
Murder, rape, adultery, and drug trafficking are among crimes punishable by death under Iran's Islamic sharia law, imposed since the 1979 revolution.
- NZPA
