Deportation of man allegedly linked to Islamic terror halted

The Supreme Court has halted the deportation of a man with alleged links to Islamic terrorism until his appeal against his removal from the State has been determined.

The appeal will be heard after the Easter courts vacation on a date to be fixed.

The man, aged in his 50s and living in Ireland for several years, was arrested by gardaí last week and detained in prison on foot of the deportation order after a sentence he was serving for having fraudulent travel documents expired.

The three-judge court gave leave on Thursday to the man’s lawyers to appeal last week’s High Court order permitting his deportation after determining the case raised points of general public importance.

Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy and Mr Justice Peter Charleton, following an application by Michael Lynn SC for the man, also placed a stay on deportation pending the appeal.

Risk of torture

Citing rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Justice O’Donnell said a stay should be granted because the man’s appeal centres on his claim, if deported, that he is at risk of being tortured and subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in breach of his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The stay was granted on the man’s undertaking, given via his lawyers, not to challenge his current detention in prison.

Sinead McGrath BL, for the Minister, citing national security concerns, had opposed any stay, but Mr Lynn argued the man’s rights under Article 3 of the ECHR, prohibiting torture, trumped any national security concerns the Minister may have.

Mr Justice O’Donnell said the court was granting permission for an appeal on issues of general importance.

These include whether the reasons provided by the Minister for Justice, when making the deportation order, and then refusing to revoke it, provided a sufficiently lawful basis for those orders.

Other issues included whether the Minister is required to notify, and invite submissions on, country-of-origin material relied upon when arriving at the decision to make deportation orders in relation to those found not to be at risk of treatment contrary to Article 3.

‘Serious concern’

The deportation order was issued by the Minister after gardaí informed her department the activities of the man and his associates were “of serious concern” and “contrary to the State’s security”.

The State claims the man had been “raising money for jihadists” and was not only convicted of terrorism offences in his home country but also in France.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, denies involvement in terrorism and claims he is at risk due to his political views.

When dismissing the man’s case last week, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys refused to allow him appeal to the Court of Appeal and lifted a stay preventing his removal from the State because of the judge’s view that no point of law of exceptional public importance arose.