Scottish Human Rights Law Group

An Iranian national claimed asylum in the United Kingdom with her daughter after having been accused of adultery following her divorce.   The penalty for adultery under Iranian shari’a law was death by stoning. She argued that her enforced return to Iran would contravene her rights under Article 6 to a fair trial as she would be tried in camera before the religious revolutionary courts whose judges also acted as prosecutors and she would be and exposed to inhuman and degrading treatment given the penalty imposed should she be found guilty of adultery.  In setting aside the decision of the tribunal and remitting the case to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal to address issues afresh the court held that the petitioner had to convince the asylum adjudicator that was a real risk of a flagrant breach of her Article 6 right to a fair trial in the event of her return to Iran but that evidence of such unfairness might also weigh in determining whether her Article 3 claim was well-founded.

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