A Palestinian man who claims he is a former political prisoner and was extensively tortured in an Israeli jail has sued the State arising out of his homelessness after he sought international protection in Ireland.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arrived in the State in April and applied for international protection.
However, he claims that since then he has been left without any proper accommodation and in recent months has spent time sleeping in a tent or in another person’s home.
He has brought High Court judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Equality and Integration, Ireland and the Attorney General seeking an order compelling the Minister to provide him with accommodation and a vulnerability assessment.
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He also seeks various declarations from the court, including that the Minister has breached his EU rights to international protection.
The court previously granted the man permission to bring his challenge and the matter was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Niamh Hyland on Friday.
David Conlan Smyth SC for the State and the Minister told the court his clients wrote to the man’s legal team with an offer to settle the action and a response was awaited.
The man’s lawyers said their client is currently ill and requires medical treatment.
The man’s counsel asked the court to adjourn the matter to a date in September, which the Judge agreed to do.
Represented by Keivon Sotoodeh BL, instructed by Patrick J Sweeney solicitors, the man claims he was incarcerated in an Israeli prison for seven years.
During that time in prison, he says, he endured psychological and physical torture.
He claims he was beaten with batons by his jailers, left in the prison yard in his underwear for long periods during the winter, and had German Shepard dogs set on him while he was in his cell.
As a result, he claims, he has been left with memory and brain function difficulties.
In addition, the man, who is aged in his 40s, claims that following his release from prison he was attacked and stabbed at his home by armed Israeli settlers.
His home was destroyed by a drone-fired missile.
Members of his family had to flee to nearby Jordan due to threats to one of his children and because of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Since arriving in Ireland, he has not been given adequate accommodation and for periods been sleeping on the street in tents.
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