THOUSANDS of people have backed an asylum-seeking Iranian family who fear the death penalty if they are returned to their homeland.

The woman and her three children have claimed asylum after being accused of distributing photocopies of The Satanic Verses, the novel which led the country's top religious leader to call for the death of author Salman Rushdie.

Immigration chiefs say there isn't enough evidence to back their claim, but a High Court judge will decide their fate at a hearing later this year.

A petition in support of the family has been signed by more than 3,000 people - including several politicians and children's authors.

The judge who will hear the immigration appeal has passed an order barring the identification of the youngest boy, who is known as Child M, meaning that the family can't be named.

A campaign group called Child M Must Stay has been set up to support the family.

MEP Caroline Lucas and children's writer Lynne Reid Banks are among the supporters, along with dozens of parents at the Manchester primary school which the youngest child attends.

The school's headteacher said: "A lot of the parents have been supporting the family and getting people to sign the petition.

"The children in the classroom understand what has been happening .

"It was particularly distressing for them when the pupil was taken away and held in detention."

The 46-year-old businesswoman, her two grown up children, and an eight-year-old boy say they had been visiting relatives in Britain on holiday in the summer when the authorities raided their home in Iran following a tip-off and found photocopied extracts of the novel.

The family claimed asylum after being warned by friends that an arrest warrant had been issued for the mother and her oldest daughter. The family's father had died in an accident two years previously.

In July, the family were taken into custody by immigration officers and held at Yarl's Wood detention centre, in Bedfordshire. But they were given 11th-hour permission to appeal the decision.

The family, who have been allowed back to their home while the appeal takes place following seven weeks in detention, say they have been sent new evidence in the form of a signed Iranian police warrant calling for the mother's arrest.

Campaigners have also complained that Home Office detention centres used to hold families before they are deported are unsuitable for children.

Earlier this year, a report by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, said children should be detained `only for the shortest time necessary'