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SS (Iraq) v the Secretary of State for the Home Department (PA/57470/2023)
In a judgment handed down on 14th October 2024, First-tier Tribunal Judge Leonard-Johnston allowed the Appellant’s asylum appeal against the SSHD.
Jenn Lawrence acted pro bono for the Appellant, through the Bar’s national pro bono charity Advocate. She worked alongside a pro bono solicitor and a pro bono medico-legal expert from Freedom from Torture, who produced an expert report which supported the Appellant’s account that he had previously been tortured at the hands of the Iraqi state.
The Appellant claimed asylum in the UK on the basis that he had been accused by the Iraqi state of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and arbitrarily detained and tortured for three months as a result. The SSHD originally refused the Appellant’s asylum claim, asserting that his interviews had contained inconsistencies. However, the Tribunal accepted the Appellant’s submission that the key inconsistency relied upon by the SSHD “could be explained by semantics and translation” and so afforded it limited weight. Moreover, the Tribunal placed “significant weight” on the medico-legal expert report from Freedom from Torture and found the Appellant’s account of his arrest and detention to be detailed and internally consistent.
The Tribunal accordingly accepted that the Appellant had a well-founded fear of persecution for his imputed political opinion and allowed his asylum appeal on Refugee Convention and Article 3 HRA grounds.