A PREMIERSHIP footballer has spoken out in a bid to stop the deportation of a friend and countryman who he believes will face almost certain death if he returns to their homeland.

Portsmouth striker Lomana Tresor Lua Lua has thrown his weight behind a campaign by a group from Fareham and Gosport to allow Congolese asylum seeker Willy Mpasi Mutwadi to stay in the UK.

Mr Mpasi, who became a familiar face at the Haslar Immigration Removal Centre in Gosport until his release on bail in early October, is due to be deported on Thursday after his asylum application failed.

The clinical biologist fled the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last year with the help of church groups who provided him with false papers and an airline ticket.

He claims he was being forced to take part in a government-inspired plot to assassinate opposition politicians by administering lethal injections.

Mr Mpasi also says he is being forced to return to a country where his brother has been killed for failing to give information to the authorities and his wife and four children are in hiding.

Lua Lua, who has become a close friend of Mr Mpasi, said: "It would be a tragedy if this remarkable, humble and godly man were to be forcibly returned to the DRC to face the retribution of the security services for having refused to commit murder, in direct contradiction of his Christian beliefs.

"Everyone in Haslar calls him 'Papa Willy' because he always looked after them, encouraged them and ministered to them. His love and warmth spill over to everyone he meets."

Mr Mpasi, who speaks through an interpreter, explained how he feels betrayed by the Immigration Service, which he says abused his good faith and deceived him.

Campaign spokesman Mike Brown, from Lee-on-the-Solent-based Neighbourlee, told the Daily Echo yesterday that the group were insisting Mr Mpasi be issued with a fresh asylum application.

His calls are also supported by church leaders.

For more information, visit www.neighbourlee.org/willympasi.htm

Home office spokesman Darcy Mitchell said the Immigration Service do not comment on individual cases.