A CONVICTED child sex offender from Pakistan has successfully challenged government attempts to send him back to his homeland, claiming he faces danger because his criminal acts became public there.
Jamil Ahmed, 48, persuaded immigration judges that deporting him would breach his human rights after newspapers in Pakistan reportedly covered his convictions for abusing teenage girls in Scotland, reported The Times.
The case highlighted ongoing legal complexities surrounding the removal of foreign nationals who have committed serious crimes in Britain.
Ahmed first faced justice in 2008 when courts found him guilty of unlawful sexual activity with a girl aged between 13 and 16. He received a three-year probation order and was ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid work.
Five years later, he appeared in court again on similar charges involving another teenager. This time, magistrates sentenced him to three years and six months in prison and placed him permanently on the sex offenders register.
Following his second conviction, immigration officials issued a deportation order. However, Ahmed has spent nearly ten years fighting through the courts to remain in Britain, losing two previous appeals but never actually being removed.
At his latest tribunal hearing in Edinburgh, Ahmed's representatives argued that media coverage of his crimes had reached Pakistan through various publications, including the Daily Kashmir News.
The tribunal judgment said, "Ahmed asserts that he has a well-founded fear of persecution and is at risk of suffering serious harm in Pakistan because knowledge of his crimes have become known in Pakistan and published in newspapers."
He further claimed that local authorities in Pakistan had opened an investigation based on his convictions, and that religious leaders had issued a fatwa against him. He alleged that extremists were distributing leaflets containing his photograph and that armed men had visited his family home searching for him. Tragically, he said his father was subsequently shot dead.
The Home Office challenged the authenticity of the alleged Pakistani newspaper reports during proceedings.
Ahmed called Pakistani legal expert Asad Ali Khan to testify about the newspaper coverage, but the 2024 hearing judge dismissed this evidence, leading to Ahmed's initial defeat.
However, the Upper Tribunal ruled that the previous judge had made legal errors by failing to properly consider the expert testimony and other key evidence.
Judge Jeremy Rintoul concluded, "I consider that, cumulatively, the judge has failed to reach sustainable conclusions with respect to the documents, the wife's evidence and the expert's opinion."
Ahmed, who is married with children and continues living in Scotland, will now face a fresh hearing to determine his immigration status, the newspaper report added.
Some panic-stricken commuters reportedly considered jumping off the trains, but were eventually rescued safely (PTI photo)