An Iranian asylum seeker who raped a teenage girl has been spared deportation even though a judge believed his conversion to Christianity was a deliberate ploy to cheat the justice system.
The 38-year-old man, who arrived in the UK in 2006, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment after raping the 17-year-old in 2012.
But after his release from prison, a judge ruled that his claim to be Christian meant his deportation to Iran would be a breach of his human rights.
The judge, who acknowledged that the man's religious conversion was part of a ploy to avoid deportation, ruled that his 850 twitter posts quoting the Bible and Christian theology placed him at risk of persecution if he was sent back to Iran.
The judge said: 'In all the circumstances, I am satisfied that the appellant has established that there is a real risk that on his return he would be questioned about the details of his asylum claim and that that questioning would reveal that he has posted on Twitter......(and) interrogation would involve a real risk of ill-treatment amounting to a breach of article 3.'
The immigration tribunal judge said it didn't matter that his conversion to Christianity was not genuine because the Iranian authorities would still be able to read his pro-Christian tweets.
The man, who can only be referred to as AM, entered the United Kingdom on 15 January 2006 and lodged an asylum application the same day.
This was rejected on 3 February 2006 and his rights of appeal against that refusal were exhausted on 2 June 2006. Telegraph.
Surely, the judgment should have been, "You have made your bed - now LIE in it!"
