Child-sex attacker can't be deported because his African tribe is 'persecuted'
An African migrant who lured a
vulnerable schoolgirl to a house for sex cannot be deported – because he
is a member of a ‘persecuted tribe’.
Jumaa Kater Saleh, 24, was convicted as part of a predatory sex gang for the ‘deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl’, who was aged 13 at the time.
But he was allowed to remain in Britain under human rights law because he faced mistreatment if sent back to Sudan.
He claimed he was a member of the Zaghawa tribe, which has been persecuted by government forces and Arab tribe militia.
And it has been ruled he can stay indefinitely, unless a court decides the ‘threat’ diminishes and it is safe for him to return to Africa.
Details of the case emerged as Saleh went to court to demand compensation from the Government for locking him up. He claimed he was unlawfully detained following his prison sentence, when he was kept behind bars to protect the public.
But the judge rejected his claim saying he had posed a ‘substantial’ risk to the public and keeping him locked up was necessary.
The decision to allow Saleh to stay
sparked outrage.
Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘I take the very simple view that if someone comes to this country and then breaks the law then he should be sent back to where he comes from.
'Any arguments about his human rights disappear when he has violated, violently, the rights of a young girl.’
Saleh arrived in the UK in November 2004 hidden in the back of a lorry.
In January 2005 he claimed asylum but this was rejected.
However, because he was under 18, he was allowed to remain until he reached adulthood in October 2006.
He was still in the country in May 2007, when arrested and charged with the sex offences. In February 2008, he was convicted of two charges of sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.
He was in a group of five immigrants who lured schoolgirls – including three aged 13 and one aged 14 – to a house for sex.
The judge at the trial had remarked that all three girls were ‘clearly disturbed and vulnerable, far from mature for their years and had been targeted by the group’. Saleh was jailed for four years on the basis that the offences were planned and that he knew the girl’s age. The judge also recommended him for deportation.
However, at the end of his sentence immigration officials deemed that he should not be released as they tried to deport him ‘for the public good’.
He was let out in May 2011 after it was decided that he would face persecution if returned to Sudan, under protection against ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ and risk to life. He now lives in Leicester.
Ruling against him yesterday, deputy High Court judge Philip Mott QC said he had not been unlawfully detained.
The judge, sitting at the High Court in London, accepted that Saleh was a member of the Zaghawa and so it was ‘not possible’ to return him to Sudan.
But he ruled there was no evidence of
Saleh being held unlawfully or unreasonably at any time and his case
failed ‘on all grounds’.
The judge said: ‘It was deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl. The risk that the claimant, in his early-20s, would commit a further sexual offence if released … had to be considered as substantial.’
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: ‘We believe those who break our laws should be returned home and are extremely disappointed with the court’s decision.
‘We did not believe that this individual needed or deserved refuge in this country.’
Jumaa Kater Saleh, 24, was convicted as part of a predatory sex gang for the ‘deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl’, who was aged 13 at the time.
But he was allowed to remain in Britain under human rights law because he faced mistreatment if sent back to Sudan.
Saleh was a member of the Zaghawa tribe, which was subject to widespread persecution (not pictured here)
He claimed he was a member of the Zaghawa tribe, which has been persecuted by government forces and Arab tribe militia.
And it has been ruled he can stay indefinitely, unless a court decides the ‘threat’ diminishes and it is safe for him to return to Africa.
Details of the case emerged as Saleh went to court to demand compensation from the Government for locking him up. He claimed he was unlawfully detained following his prison sentence, when he was kept behind bars to protect the public.
But the judge rejected his claim saying he had posed a ‘substantial’ risk to the public and keeping him locked up was necessary.
Rejecting claim: Deputy High Court judge Philip Mott QC
Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘I take the very simple view that if someone comes to this country and then breaks the law then he should be sent back to where he comes from.
'Any arguments about his human rights disappear when he has violated, violently, the rights of a young girl.’
Saleh arrived in the UK in November 2004 hidden in the back of a lorry.
In January 2005 he claimed asylum but this was rejected.
However, because he was under 18, he was allowed to remain until he reached adulthood in October 2006.
He was still in the country in May 2007, when arrested and charged with the sex offences. In February 2008, he was convicted of two charges of sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl.
He was in a group of five immigrants who lured schoolgirls – including three aged 13 and one aged 14 – to a house for sex.
The judge at the trial had remarked that all three girls were ‘clearly disturbed and vulnerable, far from mature for their years and had been targeted by the group’. Saleh was jailed for four years on the basis that the offences were planned and that he knew the girl’s age. The judge also recommended him for deportation.
However, at the end of his sentence immigration officials deemed that he should not be released as they tried to deport him ‘for the public good’.
He was let out in May 2011 after it was decided that he would face persecution if returned to Sudan, under protection against ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ and risk to life. He now lives in Leicester.
Ruling against him yesterday, deputy High Court judge Philip Mott QC said he had not been unlawfully detained.
The judge, sitting at the High Court in London, accepted that Saleh was a member of the Zaghawa and so it was ‘not possible’ to return him to Sudan.
Jumaa Kater Saleh, 24, who arrived in the UK in
November 2004 hidden in a lorry, cannot be deported because he is part
of a 'persecuted tribe' in Sudan
The judge said: ‘It was deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl. The risk that the claimant, in his early-20s, would commit a further sexual offence if released … had to be considered as substantial.’
A UK Border Agency spokesman said: ‘We believe those who break our laws should be returned home and are extremely disappointed with the court’s decision.
‘We did not believe that this individual needed or deserved refuge in this country.’
100,000 REFUGEES OF CONFLICT
More than 100,000 members of the Zaghawa tribe have been made refugees following the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The semi-nomadic people live in large swathes of the desert and plains of Chad and Sudan where they herd cattle, camels, sheep and harvest wild grains.
The tribe converted to Islam en masse in the 1940s following their exposure to passing Muslim missionaries from West Africa who were travelling to Mecca.
They have become known for their religious piety and are still very superstitious, with a strong belief in the ‘evil eye’.
Most Zaghawa villages also contain mosques, which are used for prayer. But despite being Muslim, they were deemed ‘African’ by ‘Arab’ tribal militia who along with the Sudanese Government forces targeted them during the Darfur crisis in 2003.
Rebel forces recruited child soldiers from the Zaghawa and thousands were forced to flee to neighbouring Chad or moved to UN refugee camps on the border.
The semi-nomadic people live in large swathes of the desert and plains of Chad and Sudan where they herd cattle, camels, sheep and harvest wild grains.
The tribe converted to Islam en masse in the 1940s following their exposure to passing Muslim missionaries from West Africa who were travelling to Mecca.
They have become known for their religious piety and are still very superstitious, with a strong belief in the ‘evil eye’.
Most Zaghawa villages also contain mosques, which are used for prayer. But despite being Muslim, they were deemed ‘African’ by ‘Arab’ tribal militia who along with the Sudanese Government forces targeted them during the Darfur crisis in 2003.
Rebel forces recruited child soldiers from the Zaghawa and thousands were forced to flee to neighbouring Chad or moved to UN refugee camps on the border.
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