AN ETHIOPIAN man who claims he fled to Ireland after he was arrested and tortured by the authorities in his native country has secured leave from the High Court to challenge the refusal to grant him refugee status here.
Mr Justice Brian McGovern noted yesterday that medical reports put before the Refugee Appeals Tribunal when it considered the man's application for refugee status appeared to support the man's claims of ill-treatment.
Doctors had reported the man suffered anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder and that scars on his legs were consistent with this.
In those circumstances, the judge said it was "incumbent" on the tribunal member, Mr Desmond Zaiden - who had said he had considered the medical reports "in full and in detail" - to state why he did not accept their contents. The medical evidence was "significantly supportive" of the claims and Mr Zaiden had failed to advance cogent reasons for rejecting it, he said.
On that basis, the judge ruled the 35-year-old man had established the "substantial grounds" required under the Immigration Act to bring a judicial review challenge to Mr Zaiden's decision.
The judge noted the man, married with two children, arrived in Ireland in September 2004, claiming to be a member of the Oromo Liberation Front, a group seeking independence from Ethiopia. In seeking refugee status, he claimed fear of persecution on grounds of religion and nationality. The man claimed he served with the OLF as a propagandist from 1994 to 2004, that his wife was imprisoned, his elder brother killed and that he himself was imprisoned and tortured.