An Iranian gay teenager faces execution in his home country after both Britain and the Netherlands have rejected his asylum application.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005. He has applied for asylum in Britain after learning that his male lover had been accused of sodomy and hanged in Iran two years ago. After Britain’s Home Office rejected his request, Kazemi fled to the Netherlands.

He made the first appeal in the Netherlands in October. After it had been rejected, Kazemi made a second unsuccessful appeal in December to a regional court. His last appeal was to the Council of State in January. On Tuesday the Council of State decided that Kazemi’s application for asylum must be handled by one country alone, and that country is Britain, where he applied first, according to the Dublin Regulation.

Council spokeswoman Daniela Tempelman explained that the Dutch court will consider Kazemi’s asylum request only if he brings evidence that the British government mistreated his application, but he was not able to prove any wrongdoing on the part of Britain.

If he is sent back to Britain, he faces deportation to Iran, where he will share his late boyfriend’s fate. According to human rights organizations more than 4,000 gay men and women have been hanged in Iran since the revolution in 1979. Homosexuality is considered illegal in Iran.

According to The Times, Kazemi wrote in a letter addressed to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary: “I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country. But . . . my situation has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me. I cannot stop my attraction towards men . . . I was born with the feeling and cannot change this fact . . . If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed.”

Kazemi’s uncle, who is in the UK, said that the family is considering an appeal to the European Court, BBC informs.

Britain's Border and Immigration Agency has issued a statement that could give Kazemi hope: “We examine with great care each individual case before removal and we will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk on their return.”