Exile says ‘most are happy killer is dead’

AN IRANIAN who escaped persecution for a new life in Britain, said more than 95 per cent of his countrymen were “very happy” that Qassem Soleimani had been killed.

Masoud Mohammadifar, 39, right, was accused of being a Western spy and jailed for six months, for wearing a US T-shirt.

He said yesterday: “Qassem Soleimani has killed more than 1,500 Iranian protesters on the streets.

“My people cannot do anything because they don’t have any materials to fight – they can only protest. A lot of my friends and my people are really happy inside my country, because we never believe this terrorist government.

“We are never happy about killing somebody but in my opinion, I’m really happy about what the Americans did.”

Champion kayaker Masoud, who was jailed after he shared a Facebook picture of himself wearing the T-shirt while competing in Indonesia, fled Iran in 2016 crossed to the UK from France last August.

He said from his Birmingham flat: “I spoke with more than 100 friends in Iran just a few days ago and they want to leave.

“Everybody is scared that there may be a war coming again, but they are really tired of this dictatorial regime.

“We need all the world to see this problem we have. We should go to select a parliament, but again, my people are afraid.”

He added: “We want to change this regime because it’s expired, it’s killing people.”