An Iranian asylum seeker who fears he faces death if he is sent home has had his second asylum application turned down.

Web journalist Amir Nasabzadeh fled Iran in December 2004, leaving his wife and six-year-old son, because he feared the authorities intended to torture and kill him.

He ran the first private web service in Iran and protested against the state when they clamped down on internet use and confiscated his company's equipment.

He claims to have been subsequently arrested twice, assaulted and had threats made to his life.

Mr Nasabzadeh's previous asylum application was turned down but he had launched the new request in October based on important evidence about a friend who was also arrested.

Tony Greenstein of the Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, who has been working with Amir, said: "I understand that the decision has been made primarily on procedural grounds. I am disappointed but not surprised. They erect all sorts of procedural obstacles so they can reject lots of people and call them bogus asylum seekers. We will fight to reverse the decision. I assume it will now go to judicial review."

Mr Nasabzadeh was almost deported earlier this year when police arrested him in a dawn raid on his home in Lansdowne Place, Hove. Only a friend's eleventh hour dash to Heathrow Airport with vital papers stopped him from being put on a plane to Iran.

Hove MP Celia Barlow subsequently raised concerns about the way his case was handled, saying important information had not been passed on to Amir and her officers had been "misled" by the Home Office.

She subsequently received an apology from Home Office minister Tony McNulty.

Ms Barlow said: "My office has worked tirelessly to ensure a fair and just review of Amir's application.

"We have a very good working relationship with his legal team and will continue to do everything we can to be of assistance."