Anger over freedom for only terrorist to survive Iranian Embassy siege

By Adrian Addison

THE Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, faces a fresh dilemma over how to treat terrorists, but this one is from a previous era. Within weeks he will be asked to consider the future of the only terrorist to survive when the SAS stormed London's Iranian embassy in 1980

Fowzi Badavi Nejad, 48, who was also the only man to face trial for the Iranian Embassy siege, is due to finish his life sentence later this spring and will then be entitled to a parole board hearing to determine his future.

Normally Nejad would be released and immediately deported. But as Nejad is an Iranian citizen and extradition home could mean execution, he cannot be returned.

The alternatives that will confront Clarke are asylum in the UK - a political nightmare - or negotiating an agreement with a third country to take him. A third option, to keep Nejad in prison, appears unlikely given recent rulings in the European Court.

Nejad, then a 23-year-old idealist fighting for independence for the Khuzestan region of Iran, was one of six armed gunmen to seize the Iranian embassy on 30 April 1980. The amateurish attack was orchestrated by the Iraqi regime which would soon go to war with its neighbour.

The siege lasted six days until the gunmen tied hostage Abbas Lavasani, 28, to a banister and shot him. His body was then thrown out of the front door of the Georgian building in Prince's Gate, Kensington.

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher felt she had no choice but to send in the SAS. The leader of the gunmen, Salim Owne, issued his final, ruthless order when he realised the embassy was under attack.

Ahmad Dadgar, 62, was one of the hostages. 'I heard his voice: he shouted at the other terrorists, "They attacked, go to the hostages room and kill everybody." So three of them came, including Nejad, and they started shooting with a machine gun. I was shot six times. I have no idea who fired the bullets that hit me.'

Mr Dadgar was badly wounded; one bullet narrowly missed his heart and two more smashed his hips. A colleague, 31-year-old student Ali Samadzadeh, died in the hail of bullets.

The prospect of Nejad's release is not welcomed by Trevor Lock, 65, the policeman held hostage by the gunmen and the man considered the true hero of the siege.

'This guy was as bad as the rest of them,' he told the BBC. 'He was the only one of the gunmen I didn't connect with at all. On one occasion in the middle of the siege he even shot over the head of the charges d'affaires for his own amusement.

'For such a serious crime life should mean life but if they let him out, I'll just have to accept it. I'll accept it, but I don't have to agree with it.

'But for him to be able to come out and potentially be considered for political asylum - what a situation. Where he commits this major crime, goes to prison, comes out and he's allowed to stay in the country where he committed that crime? Madness! I mean, he was here as a visitor and he abused that hospitality and he shouldn't be allowed to stay.

'They were trained and organised in Iraq. Why not send him there? He should be safe enough. Iraq, we're told, has now been liberated.'

But Mr Dadgar, perhaps surprisingly, thinks Nejad should now be freed. Along with some of the other hostages he and other hostages signed a petition supporting Nejad's release. 'I personally forgive him. Yes,' he said. 'Because he has been punished. Fair enough.'

During his trial, Iran's authorities said Nejad should face 'Islamic justice' and Mr Dadgar - who rose through the ranks of the embassy to become the diplomat who would introduce Iranian dignitaries to the Queen - has little doubt what would happen to Nejad now if he were deported to Iran.

'They would shoot him as soon as he got off the plane. He wouldn't have a trial or anything like that.'

'That view is backed by one of the SAS soldiers involved in storming the embassy, Robin Horsfall: 'I'd have no problem with him staying in this country. We should say, "Well, you've paid your debt to society," and we should let him get on with the rest of his life.'

Adrian Addison is a reporter with the BBC's Six O'Clock News. His report will be screened tomorrow evening.

February 20, 2005 | Observer, The (London, England). Author/Byline: ADRIAN ADDISON