RUSSIA: IRAQI CITIZEN FACING DEATH PENALTY AT HOME FOR CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY GRANTED ASYLUM

September 2, 2013: The Russian authorities decided not to deport a citizen of Iraq, who earlier adopted Christianity and applied for temporary asylum in Russia.
The Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) department for the Saratov Region ruled to grant temporary asylum to Iraqi citizen Mahdi Ali Saleh Mahdi for one year, FMS Deputy Chairman Nikolay Smorodin said in a letter to head of the Russian presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov.
The Civil Assistance human rights committee reported in late August that the FMS department had ruled to deport – “within five days – the refugee to Iraq, where he was facing the death penalty for adopting Christianity. "This notification about deportation is an invitation to execution," it said in a statement. (Sources: Interfax, 03/09/2013)