February 15, 2019
An Iranian asylum seeker in Britain who raped a teenage girl has been spared deportation even though a judge believed his conversion to Christianity was a deliberate ploy to defeat the justice system.
The 38-year-old man, who arrived in the UK in 2006, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after raping the 17-year-old in 2012.
But after his release from prison, a judge ruled that his claim to be Christian meant his deportation to Iran would be a breach of his human rights.
The judge, who concluded that the man’s religious conversion was just a ploy to avoid deportation, ruled that his 850 twitter posts quoting the Bible and Christian theology placed him at risk of persecution if he were sent back to Iran.
The judge said: “In all the circumstances, I am satisfied that the appellant has established that there is a real risk that on his return he would be questioned about the details of his asylum claim and that that questioning would reveal that he has posted on Twitter…. Interrogation would involve a real risk of ill-treatment.”
The immigration tribunal judge said it didn’t matter that his conversion to Christianity was not genuine because the Iranian authorities would still be able to read his pro-Christian tweets.
The man, who can only be referred to as AM under British law, entered the United Kingdom on January 15, 2006.
The threat to deport him to Iran is entirely symbolic, since Iran refuses to accept the repatriation of Iranian citizens who do not return voluntarily.