The Clapham chemical attacker – a convicted sex offender – was granted asylum despite lying about converting to Christianity.
An immigration judge overturned the Home Office’s decision not to grant Abdul Ezedi leave to remain even though he failed basic questions on religion. That was despite him claiming to be a convert and having been baptised at the Grange Road Baptist Church in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, in 2018.
The 35-year-old claimed the Old Testament was about Jesus Christ in a series of blunders during an interview, documents released yesterday reveal. A suggestion that he would be at risk of persecution if he returned to Afghanistan was supported by a vicar. Ezedi was found to have “not been honest in several aspects of his account” by the asylum judge.
Black-and-white images show Ezedi receiving baptism at a Newcastle church (PA)However, Judge William O’Hanlon allowed his appeal on asylum and human rights grounds, saying: “We must be very careful not to dismiss an appeal just because an appellant has told lies.” Ezedi’s body was found in the River Thames in February, 19 days after he doused an ex-partner with corrosive alkali and beat her three-year-old girl.
Meanwhile never-before-seen pictures also released capture the moment he was baptised and expose how he handed out church leaflets to passers-by. Ezedi’s body was pulled from the River Thames last month amid a major man hunt launched after he was suspected of dousing his ex-girlfriend with alkali when he pounced on her and her children, aged eight and three, in Clapham, south London, in January.
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Adbul Ezedi was granted asylum in the UK after being baptised (PA)It later emerged he previously avoided jail as the case sparked widespread debate about the role religion plays in determining asylum claims, while also raising questions over how the Government and courts scrutinise the validity of evidence presented in applications.
In a ruling dated November 10 2020, Judge WK O’Hanlon, sitting in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), said: “Having considered all of the evidence before me in the round, notwithstanding my concerns as to the honesty of the appellant (Ezedi) in relation to certain aspects of his account, I find that the appellant had been consistent in his evidence with regard to his conversion to Christianity.”
“Having taken all of these factors into account, I am satisfied … the appellant has undergone a genuine conversion from his former Muslim faith to Christianity and that accordingly … would be at risk in the event of return to Afghanistan. I therefore allow his asylum appeal,” he added.
Ezedi arrived in the UK on January 8 2016 but his initial asylum claim was refused by the Home Office, with an appeal later rejected by the courts the following year, according to the documents. He was handed a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court on January 9 2018 after pleading guilty to charges of sexual assault and exposure, instead being placed on the sex offender register for 10 years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Just over a year later, on March 19 2019, he challenged the decision again by lodging an appeal with the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), arguing he feared persecution because of his religion.
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