A man who claimed he fled his native Nigeria after two of his children were killed and he had refused to take part in human sacrifice rituals has been granted leave to challenge the State's refusal to grant him asylum.
Mr Justice Roderick Murphy granted leave to Mr Uzoma Iroegbu, a Nigerian of Igbo ethnicity, to bring a judicial review challenge against the State, the Minister for Justice and the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT) over the decision not to grant him asylum.
The judge found Mr Iroegbu had established the necessary substantial grounds to bring the challenge.
He claims that, in rejecting his application, the RAT had no regard to the principles of natural justice and its refusal is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Lawyers for Mr Iroegbu claimed that there were inconsistencies in the Tribunal's decision in that it had failed to construe the meaning of the "fear of prosecution" and failed to properly take into account matters relevant to the determination of his appeal.
Mr Iroegbu claims he fled Nigeria in February 2002 having refused to take over his late father's kingship of his home village. He said he had refused because to do so would involve rituals that included human sacrifice.
As a result, both he and his family were threatened. Two of his sons were killed and he and his wife fled to another village.
However, they were subsequently discovered by persons from his native village and his wife was seriously assaulted in an attempted abduction. She had miscarried as a result.
Mr Iroegbu claims that with the aid of a Catholic priest, both he and his wife fled Nigeria, leaving their three remaining children with relatives.
He arrived in Ireland in October 2002 and applied for asylum two months later.
His application was refused by the Refugee Applications Commission in September 2003 and his appeal was dismissed in June 2005.
The Tribunal had made six adverse findings in relation to Mr Iroegbu's application for asylum, in which they cast doubts on the credibility of his claims.