Rapistwho ‘faked’Christian conversion avoids deportation

AN IRANIAN asylum seeker who raped a teenage girl has been spared deportation even though a judge believed his conversion to Christianity was a deliberate ploy to cheat the justice system.

The 38-year-old who arrived in the UK in 2006 was sentenced to five years in prison after raping the 17-year-old in 2012.

Following his release from prison, a judge ruled that his claim to be Christian meant his deportation to Iran would breach of his human rights.

The judge, who acknowledged that the man’s religious conversion was part of 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 was 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… [and] interrogation would involve a real risk of ill-treatment amounting to a breach of article 3.” The immigration tribunal judge said it did not 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, entered Britain in January 2006 and lodged an asylum application the same day. It was rejected two weeks later and his rights of appeal against that refusal were exhausted in June that year.

But in April this year, he applied for a Residence Card on the basis his wife was in a member state of the European Economic Area. This was granted in December 2009 for five years.

In August 2013 he was found guilty of rape and imprisoned.

After he was released from prison in August 2015, Theresa May, who was home secretary at the time, ordered his deportation on the grounds he remained a serious threat to the public. He appealed against her decision, claiming to be a Christian who would face persecution if he were to return to Iran.

The Home Office argued that none of the tweets was anti-Islamic but the judge disagreed with the Secretary of State’s description of them as “simply quotations from the Bible”.

There were quotations from the New Testament and religious images, and retweets which he said were likely to find disfavour with Iranian authorities. One of the messages read: “People in the Middle East are still finding Jesus despite it all.”

At one point AM’s Twitter account had more than 5,000 followers and 86,000 likes. The Home Office spent thousands of pounds fighting the case and took it to the Court of Appeal, which this month ruled that the whole case should be reheard.

Lord Justice Simon said: “In these circumstances, I would allow the appeal and remit the case to the Upper Tribunal for AM’s appeal to be considered in the light of this judgment. I would also add that directions should be sought as to the admission of any evidence and further specific submissions on the Twitter issue.”

‘On his return he would be questioned… and his interrogation would involve a real risk of ill-treatment’