Ready to die: the asylum-seeker who says he fled torture and was driven to self-mutilation by Britain

An Iranian asylum-seeker who sewed up his eyes, ears and mouth in protest at his treatment by the Home Office said last night he would rather die a thousand deaths than return to his homeland.

Doctors fear Abas Amini, 33, who has been on hunger strike for a week, could die within days from dehydration. In his weakened state, he is also acutely vulnerable to infection.

As television crews and journalists converged on his Nottingham home, supporters persuaded him to make a final plea for mercy to the Government. He sat on the floor, dressed in a vest and trousers, his head slowly rocking from side to side. He spoke in a whisper in his native Farsi through pursed lips, straining against the threads that held them together. Mr Amini said: "I would rather die like this gradually a thousand times than face the injustices, the oppression, the lack of any human rights or any humanity which I was facing in Iran."

Speaking through an interpreter, the former guerrilla fighter told the BBC: "I spent many years in prison being tortured. I was forced to flee here. Shouldn't a human being have a square foot of earth to live on to live in peace?"

He also painstakingly wrote out a message of support for other people suffering human rights abuses around the world. It read: "I fully understand the pain and anguish of all those families who are under repression and cannot express their anguish and I am very sorry. One of those families is my family and I think they would give me this right to lose my life for their happiness and a better life for others. To all those families and all those who have never had any freedom, do as much as possible. Do as much as you can. Don't give up."

Mr Aminibegan a hunger strike last Tuesday after hearing the Government was seeking a judicial review of the decision to grant him asylum. He hails from Iranian Kurdistan and is an atheist who joined guerrilla fighters in the north of the country at the age of 12.

An activist in the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, he spent seven years in jail, where he claims he was repeatedly tortured, for writing poems criticising the ruling regime. He arrived in Britain in August 2001, leaving his wife and two sons, aged three and five, in Iran. Doctors at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, in London, who examined him concluded he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and was psychologically damaged, possibly as a result of torture.

He came up against the protracted procedure for claiming asylum, with lengthy delays and adjournments in the legal process. His plight worsened when his state benefit of £37.66 a week was stopped for nearly six months after Mr Amini moved from London to Nottingham.

After five adjournments (three times because the wrong interpreter was provided), an immigration tribunal ruled that he could stay but the Home Office, which was not present at the hearing, appealed against the decision.

It was at this stage he decided to take dramatic action based on the protest staged last year by 70 hunger-striking asylum-seekers, including three children, at a remote detention centre in Woomera, Australia, who sewed their lips together.

Although he has developed an eye infection, he is refusing to take any antibiotics or painkillers and has threatened to burn himself to death if anyone tries to make him eat, keeping a bottle of petrol and matches by his side.

His adviser, Sam Azad, of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees, said: "He has gone through many mock executions while he was being tortured. He has been away from his children for many, many years. He has been married eight years, but he had only seen his wife for three short occasions."

Mr Azad said his friend had accepted that he could die but was heartened by the support he had received from other people in the same situation. "The action Abas is taking reflects the anger, anguish and demoralisation of tens of thousands of refugees. In this city alone there are hundreds of people whose benefits have been stopped - despite the fact that their court cases are still in progress".

Dr Chris Udenze, who is treating him, said: "I don't think it would be legal under the Mental Health Act to force-feed him. We have to respect his rights to make a decision like this for himself."

The Iranian ambassador to Britain, Morteza Sarmadi, denied last night that he would be at risk if Mr Amini was deported. He told Channel 4 News: "There have been many asylum-seekers who have referred to our embassy and they have shown their willingness or eagerness, to return to Iran. There is no problem for asylum-seekers."

As Mr Amini's plight was portrayed in a series of television bulletins, Home Office ministers discussed the damaging publicity. Hampered by the fact that his case is still going through the creaking bureaucracy surrounding asylum applications, the department limited itself to a brief statement: "If this has happened, then it is deeply regrettable that someone would choose this course of action. It sounds horrendous."