Appeals council orders release of Iranian woman, rejecting extradition request
The appeals court council of Thessaloniki ordered the release of an Iranian refugee woman from the Diavata jail, where she had been held after an Interpol arrest and extradition warrant initiated by her country.
The council rejected the Iranian authorities' request, who want her to serve a three-year sentence for alleged opium possession and undergo forty lashings.
Farnaz Naderikia, 31, appeared in court with her 11-year-old daughter and said she had been forced to leave her country, her husband and her daughter due to political and religious persecution. She said her case began in 2009 with the persecution of Iran's main opposition leader, whose group she had joined, and when the charge of opium possession was formulated.
After her sentencing in Iran, the then-22-year-old mother was hospitalised for an illness she professed she had and then escaped, ending up in the Philippines. She stayed in the country to study, while her husband and daughter remained in Iran. Her husband, 32, sold his store and left with his daughter in October for Greece via Turkey, requesting asylum for religious and political reasons when they reached Greece. Farnaz Naderikia was arrested when the warrant showed up and held in Diavata while her family stayed nearby at a hospitality centre.
Source: ANA
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