Case: VWFP and VWFQ v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 231
Outcome: cited
Mr Estcourt QC for the appellant submitted in summary as follows: &#8226; the conclusion of the Tribunal that the appellant did not have a well-founded fear of persecution because: o he was only an apostate and not a Christian proslytizer o he had not criticised the Islamic Revolutionary government since he first went to live in the United States 25 years ago o he only reached the "lowly" rank of airman in the United States Navy and therefore he would not be a person the authorities in Iran would have any interest in punishing was " Wednesbury unreasonable" and both irrational and illogical &#8226; it was illogical in the extreme, perverse and manifestly wrong in the sense discussed by Young J in VWFP and VWFQ v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 231 to conclude that the Iranian authorities would examine the appellants Navy service records and satisfy themselves that they did not disclose that the appellant was any threat to Iran &#8226; the Tribunals' conclusion in relation to the assertion that the appellant "can inform them that he was never properly rewarded for his study efforts in the navy" and other quantitative aspects of the appellants United States Navy serve was capricious, perverse and disclose manifest error going to jurisdiction &#8226; it was not relevant how long the appellant served in the United States Navy, or the level of his rank, or whether he felt sufficiently rewarded or appreciated by the United States Navy to whether he would be of interest to the Iranian authorities. What would be of moment was the authorities' perception of the political conduct of an Iranian opponent of the current government who evaded military conscription in the service of his own country and fled to and joined the armed services of Iran's enemy &#8226; the Tribunal's unreasonable approach failed to appreciate and decide upon the full import of the evidence before it concerning the position as to Iran &#8226; given that the Tribunal found that the appellant would come to the attention of the authorities in Iran and that the legal sanction for apostasy is the death penalty, and given the appellants overall history, the chance of him suffering serious persecution was not one which could be discounted as "farfetched" "remote" or "insubstantial" &#8226; the Tribunal failed to take into account the very relevant considerations of arbitrary arrest, imprisonment of people solely on account of their beliefs, torture and ill-treatment of detainees, the refusal of Iran to adopt laws against torture and the role of "morality forces" in attacking opponents of the regime to determine whether the appellant (who has 21 years of residence in the United States and served in the United States Navy) has a well-founded fear of persecution &#8226; the Tribunal accepted the appellant's characterisation of the United States as Iran's "sworn enemy" &#8226; to have concluded otherwise than that the appellant had more than a "remote", "insubstantial" or "farfetched" chance of a threat to his liberty or physical harassment or ill-treatment at the hands of the Iranian authorities was so totally unreasonable that no reasonable Tribunal could arrive at such a conclusion and it is an irrational and illogical conclusion not based on any evidence or findings or inferences of fact supported by logical grounds.