Terrorist's release bid backed by hostages

Survivors of the Iranian embassy siege today demanded the release from jail of the only terrorist not to die when the SAS stormed the building 25 years ago.

Pressure is now mounting on the authorities to free Fowzi Badavi Nejad and grant him asylum in the UK.

Nejad, who was convicted of conspiracy to murder in 1981, faces a parole board hearing on 30 June which is expected to recommend his release.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke would then have to decide what to do with him.

Hostages who survived the siege and soldiers who rescued them say Nejad should be freed and allowed to live in Britain. He would almost certainly be executed in public if he was deported to Iran.

Nejad, 48, only lived because he passed himself off as one of the 26 hostages when the SAS stormed the embassy in May 1980 after a six-day siege in which two hostages died and several were seriously injured.

The gunman might even have escaped had it not been for Sim Harris, a hostage who warned the SAS that Nejad was in fact a terrorist.

Mr Harris now wants his tormentor freed. "He should have been put up for parole some time ago," said the ex-BBC sound recordist, who was at the embassy in Prince's Gate, Kensington, applying for a visa when six gunmen took over the building.

"He [Nejad] is an embarrassment for the Government.

They think the easiest thing is to keep him in prison."

Mr Harris, 58, has given Nejad's lawyers a statement saying the gunman did not threaten him personally.

He is backed by Robin Horsfall, a soldier who pulled Nejad out of the group of rescued hostages in the back garden, probably saving his life as the other terrorists were killed.

The former lance corporal, now a London karate instructor, said Nejad had "done his time". "He didn't actually personally murder anybody. Our government now has no choice but to offer him asylum," he added.

Mr Horsfall, who shot dead one terrorist as he came down the embassy stairs holding a hand grenade, recalled Nejad's capture: "He was mixed up with the hostages outside. It was very easy for him to mix in, he didn't have a weapon. It was Sim Harris who shouted, 'He's a terrorist'.

"As one of my comrades walked him away, I said, 'Put him down'. Our professionalism saved his life. In other countries and with other special forces, he wouldn't have survived."

The call for Nejad's release was also backed by Ahmad Dadgar, 62, who was shot six times by gunmen - in the back, hands and legs - as he dived for cover under a chair. One of the bullets narrowly missed his heart.

Mr Dadgar, who worked at the embassy and now has to take 11 pills a day as a result of his injuries, said: "I don't have any hard feelings. Nejad should be asked where he would like to go ... be given the choice of where he wants to live. He can't go to Iran."

However, embassy police guard Pc Trevor Lock, who was awarded a George Cross for tackling the gunmen's leader, disagreed.

He said: "This guy was as bad as the rest. He was the only one of the gunmen I didn't connect with at all. On one occasion 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 don't have to agree with it."

Nejad, who in 1980 was a 23-year-old idealist fighting for independence for Khuzestan, a region of Iran, is said now to regret his actions. If freed, he wants to do charity work.