LOS ANGELES — Officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) confirmed from Yemen that former Muslim Mohammed Omer Haji and his family have been accepted for emergency resettlement by New Zealand.
According to a UNHCR protection officer in the Yemen capital of Sana’a, Haji was slated to leave the Arab Gulf state with his wife and baby by August 9 for religious asylum in New Zealand.
An Aden representative of the UNHCR confirmed the New Zealand destination to Compass, stating that Haji and his wife had completed and signed all the forms required by New Zealand immigration. “As soon as their new I.D.s and immigration papers arrive, they can leave,” he said.
Haji, 27, was jailed twice and finally put on trial in late June in the southern port city of Aden on charges of committing apostasy, a capital offense under Islamic law. On July 5, Judge Gamal Mohammed Omer of Aden’s First Court in Tawahi gave Haji a one-week ultimatum to either recant and return to Islam, or face death.
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