Don't turn Ali Ahmed Asseri over to Saudi Arabia!

Ali Ahmed Asseri is scared to go home to Saudi Arabia. People back home now know that he went to gay bars in Los Angeles where he was on a diplomatic assignment. He also befriended a Jewish woman and criticized the Saudi royal family.

But Asseri has been denied political asylum in the United States, and a fellow Saudi expatriate thinks the decision was political--an effort by President Obama not to offend the Saudis

. Asseri's application to Homeland Security was going well until that department learned that he had been a judicial inspector. Asseri now stands accused of torture though he did nothing but enforce Saudi laws, his fellow countryman says.

Gay men in Saudi Arabia live in near constant fear of arrest. "Saudi Arabia is certainly a very dangerous place for gay men," says one human rights spokesperson. Please ask US President Barack Obama to afford asylum to Ali Ahmed Asseri.