Not suicide but an open verdict. This was
the pronouncement according to coroner Leonard Gorodkin on the death
of a failed asylum seeker, who walked in to the offices of Refugee
Action in Manchester and set himself on fire. The Manchester Coroners
Court heard this afternoon (21st October 2004) that a
verdict of suicide could not be established beyond all reasonable
doubt
Israfil Shiri, an Iranian national,
arrived in the UK in the back of a truck in August 2001 and was
finally refused asylum in November 2002. In Iran he had been a
dissident member of the Basij, a volunteer army concerned with
enforcing Iran’s Islamic code. When the authorities obtained
documented evidence of his life as a gay man he fled to avoid
execution.
Giving evidence to the inquiry, Kamran
Adib Qudis a friend and former co-resident recalled the eviction of
Israfil Shiri from their New Prospect Housing address in Salford. The
National Asylum Support Service (NASS) ordered this eviction following
the Home Office’s rejection of appeal. Denied a home, benefits and the
right to work Israfil Shiri became totally destitute. Even access to
his prescribed medication was blocked. Unable to eat without bleeding
and vomiting Israfil Shiri was a sick man. Kamran pleaded with
officials who removed all Israfil Shiris’s personal effects from the
house.
Living a transient hand to mouth
existence, from then on, he would stay with friends. On other
occasions he would find shelter and sleep in wheelie bins.
On 23rd August 2003 at about
ten past three in the afternoon, Israfil Shiri met Natalie Underwood
at the offices of Refugee Action. According to Ms Underwood although
discussing his medical condition and fear of deportation, he appeared
calm and pleasant. He shook her hand at the end of the interview and
promised to come back the following day. He returned a few minutes
later doused in a flammable liquid. With two flicks from a green
cigarette lighter he turned himself into a human torch. The court
heard how the intensity of the flames could be felt from several feet
away and how Israfil Shiri collapsed to the floor as the flames were
extinguished with a carbon dioxide extinguisher. In agony yet still
able to speak he screamed that he did not want to die and that he did
not want to be sent back to Iran.
Israfil Shiri died in Manchester’s
Wythenshawe hospital on 3rd September 2003. According to
the doctors report he had suffered seventy eight percent body burns,
the worst of these being to the chest, abdomen, and upper limbs.
In recording an open verdict the coroner
remarked that the evidence and conclusions provided by Greater
Manchester Fire Service in the actions of the deceased had been
helpful. In his summation the coroner remarked: "I have heard a lot of
what the deceased may have been trying to do".
However, he was unable to comment on
Government policy but it was clear that Israfil Shiri had, had his
application refused and that he was unable to find a specialist
solicitor to fight the appeal. The only way not to go back to Iran was
to provide a medical report saying that he was not fit but since he
had no permanent accommodation he was unable to get access to a
doctor. "The intentions of Israfil Shiri were an act of a desperate
man who couldn’t go back to Iran and was not able to stay here".
Closing the proceedings the coroner
thanked the Committee for Asylum Seekers. Dr Rhetta Moran represented
the family of Israfil Shiri at the inquest.