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"My life is in a great danger here," Ali Ahmad Asseri wrote in a letter to news organizations Tuesday, "and if I go back to Saudi Arabia, they will kill me openly in broad daylight. I want my voice to be heard, and I want them to know that I am not alone."
Asseri requested asylum late last month, when Saudi officials fired him from his post because they found out he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish Israeli woman. Asseri told NBC News on Saturday that he had asked to remain in the U.S. as a member of a "particular social group" -- gays -- that is persecuted in his home country. U.S. officials have yet to make a decision on his application.
Asseri told The New York Times on Tuesday that he has received death threats since he made his request for asylum public and posted comments criticizing Saudi Arabia on an Arabic website. He also threatened to reveal embarrassing information about Saudi officials living in the United States.
In a letter he posted online, Asseri condemned the "distorted thinking" and "militancy" of some hard-liners in Saudi Arabia, according to a translation in the New York Daily News. Asseri's attorney, Ally Bolour, said his client was an emotional mess. "He's a basket case. He's very worried about his safety and so am I," Bolour told the newspaper.
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Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia. Nail al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said it was also simply not tolerated in Islam."In general, homosexuality in Islam is unacceptable," al-Jubeir told the Times. Asseri's religious views could also cause him problems in Saudi Arabia. The diplomat told the Los Angeles Times that he believes in God but is not a practicing Muslim.
The last time a Saudi diplomat publicly sought asylum in the U.S. was in 1994, according to an NBC report.
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