![]() |
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] [DONATE] | |||||||||
United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal |
||||||||||
PLEASE SUPPORT BAILII & FREE ACCESS TO LAW
To maintain its current level of service, BAILII urgently needs the support of its users.
Since you use the site, please consider making a donation to celebrate BAILII's 25 years of providing free access to law. No contribution is too small. If every visitor this month gives just £5, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing this vital service.
Thank you for your support! | ||||||||||
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal >> JG (Al– Hagh, Fresh evidence at hearing) Iran [2004] UKIAT 00317 (27 September 2004) URL: https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIAT/2004/00317.html Cite as: [2004] UKIAT 00317, [2004] UKIAT 317 |
[New search]
[Context]
[View without highlighting]
[Printable RTF version]
[Help]
JG (Al – Hagh – Fresh evidence at hearing) Iran
[2004] UKIAT 00317
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Date of hearing: 9 September 2004
Date Determination notified: 27 September 2004
Before
Mr N Kumar JP
Between
JG | APPELLANT |
and | |
Secretary of State for the Home Department | RESPONDENT |
DETERMINATION AND REASONS
"(i) In 1999 he was expelled from university when it was discovered that he used to follow the Al-Hagh religion and had been accused of insulting the Islamic religion during a discussion at university. After he was expelled the security forces raided his house inIran
to arrest him but he was not there. When he found out about this he went into hiding with a nomadic tribe and heard that his father was arrested and detained for two days. He feared for his life and on 30 June 2000 he left
Iran
.
(ii) There is a big difference between the religion of Al-Hagh and Islam. The holy book of Al-Hagh is called the Pardivar or Saranjam and they believe in the five prophets and also believe that everything evolves from the soul and the soul will reappear again after death. They believe that God is a creator of everything.
(iii) The followers of Al-Hagh are a minority inIran
since the majority of people are Muslims who follow Islam. Some people call followers of the Al-Hagh, Ali-Allahi and therefore followers of the religion may be referred to as being part of either religion. At the age of 16 each individual has to confirm that they believe in Al-Hagh. If they do not want to be part of the religion they are free to practise any religion. Some believers mark Friday night as a holy night but others mark Saturday night as a holy night. Numerous obstacles have arisen as a result of their religious beliefs and when applying for positions within the government in
Iran
in the application form they would have to state their religion and to avoid conflict and problems they would lie and state that they were Muslims in order to obtain a job. If it was discovered that they had lied and actually followed Al-Hagh they would be immediately sacked from their job.
(iv) After his brother was executed inIran
he grew to hate Islam and at university there was a Muslim priest who always talked about the twelfth Imam believing that he is still alive and could be anywhere in the world and when this discussion was taking place the Appellant disagreed with those views and asked the priest whether this twelfth prophet could be the Appellant. There was an uproar amongst the people and this was regarded as an insult to Islam and he was thrown out of the university for this comment. After he was thrown out of university the head of the university informed the Iranian authority of his outspoken view and this is what led to his problems as the authorities wanted to arrest him and question him about his behaviour. As he realised that there was a possibility that they would kill him and that his house had been visited by members of an intelligence service he realised his life was in danger and fled
Iran
".
"17. It is not contended that the Appellant has himself been persecuted for his religious beliefs or the alleged insult to Islam when he spoke to a Muslim priest. This resulted in him being expelled from university several months later at the end of 1998 and in June 1999 the Etelaat went to his home but he was not there and they detained his father for two days.
18. I find the Appellant to have given a consistent account and I find that what he has said apart from the detention of his father to be credible. It is credible that in order to get into university he did not disclose his true religion but he said he was Muslim and that for five years he was able to keep his religion a secret but that in one discussion he made a statement which was treated as an insult to Islam. He dropped out of university for a term of four months which was then followed by the three months summer holiday and when he returned to university he was told that he was being expelled. He went to work on his father's farm and some six months later the Etelaat came to see him but he joined a nomadic tribe and eventually leftIran
.
19. Although I find the majority of his account to be credible, I do not find there are substantial grounds for believing that his involvement in Al-Hagh would have caused him to be persecuted. It is a personal religion and he had not been proselytising. If he had made himself available to the Etelaat there was not a real risk that this would have resulted in persecution or torture. He had not in his earlier Statement of Evidence Form said that his father was detained. If his father had been detained it is expected that he would have mentioned it in the Statement of Evidence Form. He also said that his father was released after two days. If I had accepted that his father had been detained his father would not have been released so soon if the authorities were holding his father in the place of the Appellant. The incident which caused him to be expelled from university had taken place over a year earlier and if he had been of interest to the authorities because of what he had said they would have sought him out much sooner.
20. The objective evidence such as it is shows that religious minorities are tolerated although they may suffer discrimination. Provided there is no proselytising of Muslims they will not come to harm. The fact that his brother was executed in 1981 is explained by the fact that he was specifically writing religious books on Al-Hagh and distributing them to other people. His brother had been warned about this but continued his activities. The Appellant was not in anything like that sort of situation".
"The conclusion that surrender to the Iranian security policy would not entail a risk of persecution is contrary to the background evidence and is unreasonable (see Hathaways's first and second categories of rights as set out in Horvath 1999 INLR 7 at 25). Alternatively the combined circumstances of the illegal exit, an interest in return from abroad, Kurdish ethnicity, minority religious belief, continuing security police attention, widespread legal impropriety and heresy".
"(a) identify the alleged errors of law in the Adjudicator's Determination and
(b) explain why such errors made a material difference to the decision.
"… It may be that it is perfectly possible to conclude that the Adjudicator was wrong on the merits. Such a conclusion might have justified overturning his decision under the earlier wider appellate jurisdiction (see this court's judgment in Subesh) but the jurisdiction under Section 101 forbids in effect the IAT deciding the merits itself unless at least it first concludes that the Adjudicator's decision cannot stand because it is marred by error of law".
The more limited jurisdiction of the Tribunal applies not only to those decisions to remove made by the Secretary of State on or after 1 April 2003 but also to earlier removal decisions made by the Secretary of State where the appeal against them is heard by an Adjudicator on or after 9 June 2003, the date provided by Schedule 2, paragraphs 4A and 4B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Commencement No. 4) Order 2003 (SI 2003, No. 754) dealing with transitional provisions relating to the 2002 Act.
J BARNES
VICE PRESIDENT