A man who claimed his refusal to store weapons and explosives in his West Bank home meant he will be murdered by militants if deported from Ireland has lost his High Court action aimed at preventing his deportation.
The 27-year-old Palestinian man, who is living in Lucan, Dublin, claimed he was abducted by the Fatah-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade after refusing to store weaponry for them and was held captive for two weeks before he escaped and fled to Ireland.
The man, who cannot be named, claimed the Refugee Appeals Tribunal had breached fair procedures and disregarded material that was put to it in the case. The tribunal dealt with an appeal by the man against an earlier decision of the Office of the Refugee Appeals commission.
Dismissing the man's application, Mr Justice Peter Charleton ruled the tribunal member who dealt with the case, David McHugh, was entitled to apply common sense and life experience to his decision that the man's account of persecution in the West Bank was not credible.
The judge also said there was an obligation on the applicant to provide a plausible explanation to the appeals tribunal as to why he did not have any identity papers when he arrived here.
In an affidavit, the man said he was apolitical which, in the West Bank, means a person is "considered to be a traitor or a collaborator with the Israelis".
The man claims that apart from the threat to his life from Fatah, he also believed that if returned to the West Bank he would be under suspicion from the Israelis.
The judge said yesterday that, although the tribunal and the refugee commission had the benefit of seeing the applicant before them and the court had not, there was nothing in the papers to indicate any reason why they were incorrect.