THE only terrorist to have survived the SAS assault that ended the siege of the Iranian embassy in London in 1980 could be granted political asylum for life in Britain.

The Home Office is about to announce whether Fowzi Badavi Nejad, 48, should be released from prison. Reports claim Charles Clarke, the home secretary, is preparing to give him a new identity to protect him from revenge attacks and grant him asylum.

Nejad and five other gunmen held 26 people captive at the embassy in Prince’s Gate, London. The six-day siege reached its climax when the terrorists murdered two hostages, throwing one body out of the building, prompting Margaret Thatcher to order the SAS to storm the embassy.

Nejad, who briefly escaped by passing himself off as one of the hostages, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1981 for conspiracy to murder, false imprisonment, possession of a firearm and two charges of manslaughter.

He was told then that he would spend at least 25 years in prison. However, the Court of Appeal last year backed advice by Lord Woolf, the lord chief justice, that the sentence be reduced to 22 years.

Clarke has the final say on when Nejad will be freed. In June the Parole Board is believed to have recommended his release after a hearing at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk, where he is serving his sentence.

The Home Office last night confirmed that a decision by Clarke is imminent but would not confirm reports in The Mail on Sunday that Nejad be moved to an open prison before being given a new identity and asylum.

The home secretary cannot deport Nejad to Iran, where he is believed to face almost certain execution because of his membership of a proscribed terrorist group and his role in killing the hostages, both embassy workers.

The terrorists were Iranian members of the Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan, which was sponsored by Saddam Hussein. The siege was orchestrated by Saddam in the lead-up to Iraq’s war with Iran.

In June some of the hostages who survived the siege and the soldiers who rescued them said Nejad should be freed and allowed to live in Britain.

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