FJ (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, referred to as FJ, is a young man born in Iran on 31 January 1988 who came to the United Kingdom aged sixteen and was granted leave to remain during his minority. He did not apply to extend that leave before turning eighteen, but on reaching adulthood sought protection against removal to Iran as a refugee. His case was that he and his father were Kurds, that his father had taken part in a Kurdish demonstration in 2004 at which the father was shot at and imprisoned, and that FJ, who had attended with him, went into hiding in his grandfather's cellar before being taken out of the country with his grandfather's help. His 2004 witness statement described the party for which his father worked as the IDP; a witness statement of 9 March 2007 corrected this to the KDPI and attributed the mistake to an interpreter. Immigration Judge Phull, in a decision dated 25 March 2007, considered the evidence in the round, accepted FJ as credible, accepted letters from the KDPI and from the Iranian state organisation Eta'laat, and allowed his claim. The Secretary of State obtained reconsideration; SIJ McKee found a material error of law, and on second stage reconsideration, promulgated on 22 December 2007, FJ's evidence was disbelieved and the letters described as fabrications. FJ renewed his application for permission to appeal.