Foreigner who clubbed man to death will not be deported to protect mental health

A foreign murderer who clubbed a man to death in the back of a London ambulance will not be deported in order to protect his mental health, a court has ruled.

The Ugandan killer, who received a life sentence for the murder, won a legal battle against attempts to deport him by the Home Office on the basis that it would breach his human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Lawyers for the murderer, who was also granted anonymity, successfully argued that it would be “inhumane” because Uganda does not have the required facilities to treat his mental health.

The court accepted that there would be a “serious, rapid and irreversible decline” in his mental wellness if he was deported, which would amount to a breach of his article three rights under the convention.

This protects individuals against inhuman and degrading treatment or torture.

The man, known only as ZM, was a member of a North London mob who chased their victim – Eugen Breahna – into the back of an ambulance. He had gone there in the hope that it would offer him protection from the gang, who were wielding baseball bats and golf clubs.

Killer trapped victim ‘like an animal’

Aftab Jafferjee, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: “He was trapped like a caged animal and clubbed to death in a place most normal human beings would think offered them sanctuary.”

The killer, who was 18 at the time and is now 37, was jailed for life in 2006, with the judge ordering that he should serve a minimum term of 16 years in prison.

On his release form, the Home Office sought to have him deported to Uganda but this was blocked by a first tier immigration judge. An appeal against the block by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has since failed.

The court heard that ZM had a psychiatric disorder which caused him to suffer a “pervasive distrust and suspiciousness”, making him preoccupied with grievances and grudges against those he believed had done him harm.

Lawyers argued that his deportation to Uganda would be a “traumatic event” that could lead to his mental condition deteriorating.

Living in an “alien world” in Uganda, where he had no friends or contacts, would add to his “suspiciousness” and he would be separated from his mother who lives in the UK.

‘Rapid and irreversible mental decline’

Christopher John Hanson, the senior immigration judge, said he was “satisfied” that the necessary treatment for ZM’s condition was “either not available or not accessible” to him if he was deported to Uganda.

“I find that if [ZM] was removed to Uganda there would be serious, rapid and irreversible decline in their state of health resulting in intense suffering or significant reduction in life expectancy,” said Judge Hanson.

He added: “All of those factors lead me to conclude that there is a real risk of ill-treatment, capable of breaching [ZM’s] Article 3 rights, in the context of reception procedures in Uganda.”

Rejecting the Home Office appeal, Judge Hanson said the first-tier judge “has not been shown to have materially erred in law”. This would mean ZM would be allowed to remain in the UK.

ZM’s battle against his deportation is among 27,000 appeals currently before the courts and waiting to be heard.

The backlog – as of March this year – represents a near four-fold increase in appeals from 7,500 in the year to March 2023.

With a logjam of more than 110,000 asylum seekers, the Refugee Council predicted that the number of appeals are expected to increase sharply, many of which will be challenging their deportation on human rights grounds.