Via Seattletimes.com

Ayoob Siddick picked up his cellphone Wednesday afternoon to hear the news he'd been waiting for after nearly six months of frayed nerves and sleepless nights.

An immigration judge in Seattle granted asylum in the U.S. to the Kirkland resident; his wife, Amida; and their four children. They will not be deported to their native Zimbabwe, where the family feared they would face persecution or worse.

"I feel as if I've been fighting this great war, and now I'm victorious," Siddick said. "We are taking time to reflect on everything that has happened in the past and all the people who have rallied around us and have never faltered."

The family, which is buying a home near Mill Creek, moved to Kirkland five years ago to escape what they described as turmoil and widespread government corruption. The Siddicks had been fighting for asylum since 2003, when their first application was denied because the family had not applied for asylum status within one year of arriving in the U.S., as the law requires.

In March they appealed that decision and faced an immigration judge in Seattle to explain why they feared persecution if they returned to Zimbabwe. In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Victoria Young agreed that the Siddicks could face persecution.

The Siddicks were members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the opposition party to the government's ruling party, and members of the MDC have been arrested without cause, tortured and killed, according to the State Department's 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released in March.

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