A FURTHER legal bid by Nigerian mother Pamela Izevbekhai to prevent the deportation of herself and her two daughters has been adjourned to allow the sides address legal issues raised by the Supreme Court.
Ms Izevbekhai’s appeal was due to be heard yesterday before the five-judge Supreme Court along with an application by the State to strike out her appeal as an abuse of process. The State claims her case was based on fraudulent documents to show her first-born child died from genital mutilation but she says she has new documents to support her claim.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court said issues arising from a High Court judgment in another case last July could render Ms Izevbekhai’s proceedings “very moot” and the court asked that the sides address those issues.
The High Court decision referred to was given by Mr Justice Kevin Feeney who found the Minister for Justice has discretion to allow an application for subsidiary protection even where a deportation order (as in Ms Izevbekhai’s case) was signed before October 2006, when an EU regulation relating to subsidiary protection came into effect.
The matter was adjourned for three weeks for lawyers for both sides to prepare submissions and a date will then be set for the hearing.