AN ASYLUM seeker fighting deportation to a country where he faces death will have to stay in detention while he waits to hear his fate.

Congolese Willy Mpasi Mutwadi was due to be flown home yesterday, but campaigners helping him, including Portsmouth footballer Lomana Tresor Lua Lua, lodged a last-minute judicial appeal.

That means his deportation will be delayed for the outcome of the High Court hearing. But hopes that he would be released from the detention centre at Gatwick where he is being held, to return to Fareham, have been dashed.

Home Office bosses ruled yesterday that the clinical biologist would have to stay behind bars.

Mr Mpasi fled the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because his Christian beliefs put him at odds with country leaders.