Pegah Emambakhsh is free!

Pegah is free! Late morning on September 11th Pegah Emambakhsh was released
from the Yarls Wood Detention Centre and is now back with people who will
love and care for her. The Court of Appeal has also agreed to hear her case. It will
be listed within the next couple of weeks and heard some time in the next few months,
we believe. Pegah was so emotional as she left the detention centre and her supporters in
Sheffield were in tears as they took her home.
The Iranian woman is no longer considered an illegal immigrant, she is now
a refugee awaiting asylum. Her first thoughts went to the friends who have
helped her and rescued her three times from the plane deporting her to her death. The
EveryOne group, which is responsible for organising a vast international campaign from Italy,
was the first to receive the news of her release, which the “Friends of Pegah
Campaign” confirmed today via e-mail. “It had appeared a desperate undertaking, one with
no possible solution,” commented Roberto Malini (Gruppo EveryOne) “because
Pegah’s destiny had already been decided. Instead we fought with all our might for her
life, and stirred up a vast people’s movement campaign. Pegah is our “Ann Frank”, an innocent woman, in prison for no crime, destined for deportation and death by stoning. But this time we did it. Her executioners didn’t win, the right to live won instead.” Pegah is free, but she
is still not out of danger. This time, of course, the Court of Appeal will evaluate her case
carefully, there will be no irresponsible superficiality that led to the first verdict, but we have to
remain on our guard.
“Yes, because Pegah’s case could become the first stone of a new juridical
structure,” says Matteo Pegoraro (Gruppo EveryOne) “a structure, a building
in which we can finally celebrate justice and respect for human rights, not violence,
abuse and horror. The British Government, in fact, is at a junction, it has the chance
to follow the path of true civilization, which cannot disregard the protection of the weak
and persecuted, nor ignore that of brutality, injustice, complicity in persecution
and genocide.
Pegah now needs time to recover from the ordeal of the past few weeks. She also
needs to get back in touch with the ordinary business of living her life in peace and
tranquillity. “The pressure on Pegah must be slackened,” concludes Dario Picciau (Gruppo
EveryOne”, “but the battle for the human rights of refugees and the persecuted will continue.
Tomorrow the President of the European Parliament will forward to Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, a previously-announced letter in which he firmly asks for Pegah to be granted
asylum and greater respect for the international laws that protect refugees. In the meantime, members of the Gruppo EveryOne are preparing a document that shows the violations committed by the United Kingdom and other democratic countries towards immigrants fleeing from
nations they are persecuted in, as very rarely they are granted refugee status. Pegah’s case
must become the symbol of a change which is absolutely necessary in the field of human
rights.”