Prominent Iranian left-wing activist Jamal Saberi (Jalal Amanzadeh Nouei) is facing deportation to Iran from Japan, despite having lived there for 18 years, being married to a Japanese woman and having a child there.
Iran Solidarity organised a protest outside the Japanese consulate in Melbourne on April 16 as part of a worldwide campaign calling for his release and for Japan to recognise him as a refugee.
Saberi is known to a lot of people in Iran and Japan as a tireless activist who has fought against the Islamic Republic and the racist, anti-immigrant policies of the Japanese state.
He is the only member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran in Japan, but has organised dozens of Japanese activists for demonstrations in front of the Iranian embassy in Tokyo.
His political asylum case is well known among the Japanese left.
Iran Solidarity said the Saberi case has global implications. Iran Solidarity is particularly concerned about the plight of thousands of Iranian refugees in Turkey. If Japan succeeds in deporting Saberi, Turkey is likely to take that as a green light to deport Iranian refugees.