A Kenyan man who was arrested in London in 2011 with a cache of jihadist material stored in his iPod managed to overturn the UK's Home Office deportation order and secure asylum as a refugee.
According to the Daily Mail, a UK publication, on October 27, the man who confessed to having an 'extremist mindset' was declared free to apply to permanently stay in the UK by a London-based court.
According to court documents seen by the publication, the Kenyan argued that his rights as a refugee far outweighed the risks he posed to the UK.
The man whose identity is hidden for security purposes goes by the initials NF.
He claimed that Kenyan authorities would subject him to 'ill-treatment' if he was deported back home.
The suspected terrorist was arrested at Heathrow airport in London when he landed from Kenya in 2011.
Besides the jihadist material stored in his iPod, NF, according to court documents had audio files reportedly made by Al Qaeda and photos of armed persons with flags linked to the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terror group.
More terror-related material was found at NF's home in 2013 by sleuths and the suspected terrorist landed a nine-month jail term for being in possession of 'information useful to terrorism'.
The UK Home Secretary, an equivalent to Kenya's Foreign Affairs CS, tried to deport NF and his wife who lodged asylum claims to stay in Britain.
Officials from the Home Office argued that the Kenyan man was not entitled to humanitarian protection under the Refugee Convention because of the risk NF posed.
However, in the first case of its kind to be made public, immigration judges in 2016 upheld an appeal by the Kenyan nationals and allowed the two to remain in Britain and pursue an asylum claim.
The decision by London immigration courts was upheld by Mark Ockelton, Vice President of the UK Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) and judge Mark O’Connor who argued that the threshold for ‘threatening international peace and security’ had not been crossed.
A UK MP, David Davies in response to the decision by the immigration courts stated, "this shows how totally out of touch our courts have become... It’s absolutely insane that judges and the courts are allowing this to happen."
