AA v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, AA, is a 52-year-old Iraqi national, an Arab Sunni from Baghdad, who arrived in the United Kingdom on 11 July 2022 and applied for asylum on 19 January 2023. He had worked in Iraq as a labourer, in restaurants, as a taxi driver and latterly selling alcohol from a stall outside a restaurant owned by his brother, a business he says he began in about 2005. His case is that Shia militias objected to the trade and attacked the stall in about 2005/2006, shooting him several times and killing two employees and friends, S and R. He claims the families of S and R blamed him for their deaths, that a blood feud developed, and that false criminal allegations were made against him concerning those deaths and his military service. He says he fled Iraq, returning only briefly on three occasions, and was detained in Abu Ghraib and later in Kurdistan on suspicion of espionage. The Secretary of State accepted that the appellant had been shot and suffered from PTSD and physical and mental health conditions, but refused the claim by decision dated 16 April 2025, disputing his credibility as to the blood feud and any risk on return. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal.