Exile Vows to Help Bring Freedom and Democracy to Iran

Gholamreza Mohajeri Nejad sat on the edge of his chair, his machine-gun-fire pitch for a free and democratic Iran interrupted every few minutes by an impassive clerk calling another political asylum seeker to the Immigration and Naturalization Service counter in Anaheim.

“I’m surprised they haven’t called me yet,” the 29-year-old Iranian rebel said Thursday morning in his native Persian, his eyes locked on two applicants who jumped up as their number was called. “I’m sure we got here before they did.”

That Nejad wanted out of this sterile government waiting room was no surprise. It wasn’t the kind of place from which he could conduct his revolution. In this room filled with desperate immigrants, no one knew that Nejad had paid for his beliefs in beatings and torture at the same windowless Iranian prison that his jailers’ employer, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been sent to for opposing the former shah.

Five minutes later, the wait was over. At 9:30 a.m., an INS worker handed Nejad a letter spelling out what he and his supporters had longed to hear since he arrived in Los Angeles on Aug. 28: Political asylum granted.

“Congratulations,” the clerk said flatly, a phrase she no doubt utters many times each day. More than 13,000 immigrants were granted political asylum in the United States last year, according to the INS--596 of them Iranian.

Nejad beamed at the clerk, shrugging off her indifference. “Thank you very much,” he replied in his limited English. “Have a good time!”

Getting asylum provides a new legal home for Nejad, who faces a death sentence in Iran. It also gives him permission to work, which he eagerly wants to do to help repay sympathetic strangers for their generosity in feeding, clothing and sheltering him the last 7 1/2 months.

His benefactors are largely expatriate Iranians such as Melody of Encino, who became Nejad’s translator and shuttled him to and from myriad U.S. government offices.

“I met him at one of his speeches, and was encouraged to see such bright, young people fighting to make a difference in Iran,” said Melody, who asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution against family and friends in Iran.

Nejad is living in Van Nuys and was brought to California by the Rancho Palos Verdes-based Mission for Establishment of Human Rights in Iran. A year from now, he can apply for a green card, and ultimately citizenship, like thousands of Iranians living in Southern California have done before him.

Nejad won’t do that, however.

His heart and soul remain in Iran. “I would happily live in the bleakest desert if it meant I could be back home,” he said.

The Tehran University undergraduate helped incite protests against the Islamic republic, a campaign on Iran’s streets that to this day calls for freedom and government accountability.

Since being released from prison and fleeing to the West last year, Nejad has continued to stir up sentiment back home, taking part in radio shows beamed from Beverly Hills to Iran and granting interviews to Western newspapers, which are then reprinted in Persian.

His opposition to the clergy-led government and calls for a referendum to determine Iran’s future have come at a hefty price, however: Less than three weeks after an article about him appeared in The Times, Nejad learned that he had been sentenced to death in absentia for treason.

One of his associates, who was arrested by Iranian police for, among other things, talking with Nejad, was even told by her jailers that he would be assassinated.

But Nejad refuses to worry about such threats.

“I can only die once,” he said. “If a person is afraid, he dies a thousand deaths.”

In the six months since he applied for asylum, Nejad has traveled to New Hampshire, Illinois, Northern California and Washington, D.C., lecturing at universities and Iranian forums. He plans to move to Washington and stay in the United States until his goal of a popularly elected Iranian government free of clerical influence is achieved.

After Thursday’s hearing, he celebrated by giving his attorney, Russ Kerr of Fountain Valley, wine and potted lilies. The human rights attorney had represented him for free.

Today, Nejad plans to take part in a live broadcast to Iran from radio station KRSI in Beverly Hills.

“I don’t feel much like parties and celebrations until Iranians [back home] can have them freely,” he said.