Iranian exile, stuck for years in French airport, dies

An Iranian political refugee, who was stuck at Paris' Charles-de-Gaulle airport for almost two decades after being expelled from France died there on Saturday, an airport spokesperson told Agence France-Presse news agency.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri lived for more than 18 years in one of the airport's terminals and his story inspired a movie by Steven Spielberg — The Terminal starring Tom Hanks.

The airport source said Nasseri died of natural courses at terminal 2F shortly before noon. He was 77 years old.

How did Nasseri get stuck?

Nasseri, who was born Masjed Soleiman in the Iranian province of Khuzestan in 1945, alleged he was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah and was given refugee status in Belgium. Tehran, however, disputes his account.

In November 1988, in an effort to locate his mother, he traveled to Britain, Germany and the Netherlands but was refused entry due to a lack of papers.

Upon return to France, he was detained and then released into the Terminal 1 building where he remained with just his suitcase, relying on food and medicine from airport employees.

He became an international cause celebre, calling himself "Sir Alfred", and a small section of airport parquet and plastic bench became his domain.

In 1992, a French court ruled that he could not be expelled from the airport but could not enter the country.

Nasseri was later offered residency by both France and Belgium, which he refused.

Hollywood came calling

In 2003, Nasseri was offered $250,000 for the rights to his story by Spielberg's Dreamworks production company.

Although his story inspired the movie The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the script centered on an Eastern European man stuck at a US airport and denied entry, but unable to return to his home country because of a coup.

His autobiography was released in 2004, co-written by British author Andrew Donkin.

Returned to airport after 16 years

Nasseri was hospitalized in 2006, which ended his stay at the airport and he spent several subsequent years living in a shelter in Paris.

After spending most of the money he received for the film, Karimi Nasseri returned to the airport a few weeks ago, the airport official said.

Several thousand euros were found on him.

With material from AFP news agency