Revealed: How Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi was allowed to stay in UK despite sex offence conviction

The Clapham chemical attack suspect was granted asylum after convincing a judge he was a Christian convert – despite concerns he had “fabricated” parts of his claim.

A tranche of immigration documents has revealed a judge had already refused Abdul Ezedi’s application for asylum in 2017 because they did not believe his conversion – which happened in a matter of weeks – was genuine.

However he was granted to leave to remain after successfully convincing a different judge on appeal three years later, arguing his new Christian faith could lead to his persecution if he was returned to Afghanistan.

His successful claim was supported by a Baptist minister from a church in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, which he joined shortly after his arrival in Britain in 2016.

Shockingly, the appeal ruling allowing him to stay – dated 10 November 2020 – made absolutely no reference to his convictions for sex offences two years earlier.

He was handed a suspended sentence and put on the sex offenders register in 2018 after pleading guilty to one charge of sexual assault and one of exposure.

The former car mechanic, who suffered from depression and anxiety and told immigration officials he talks to himself, is feared to have gone on commit a horrific chemical attack on his ex-partner and her two young children in Clapham, south London, in January this year.

His body was later pulled from the Thames after he is thought to have plunged from Chelsea Bridge hours after the attack.

According to tribunal documents obtained by media organisations, Ezedi arrived in the UK on 8 January 2016 and applied for asylum.

Originally a Shia Muslim, he told immigration officials that his interest in Christianity began shortly after his arrival in Britain when he was housed with an Iranian man who attended church and read the Bible.

He started attending Grange Road Baptist Church that February and went on to complete an Alpha course in Christianity, before he was baptised in June 2018.

Since then he said he had actively been engaged in street ministry handing out religious leaflets in Newcastle.

According to his account, he was shot in the leg by the Taliban at home in Afghistan and his family home was bombed – adding that the punishment for converting in sharia law is execution.

But in 2017 Judge Gribble of the First-tier Tribunal found that inconsistencies in his account “painted a wholly unreliable and inconsistent picture, and one which lacked credibility”.

Judge Gribble said he did not believe his conversion was genuine and refused his asylum bid, adding that his church attendance and baptism did not amount to compelling evidence that he would face a real risk of persecution if returned to Afghanistan.

However at a fresh appeal hearing in in 2020, a different judge concluded Ezedi’s conversion was genuine despite concerns about his honesty.

The tribunal also heard oral submissions from Reverend Roy Merrin, of the Grange Road Baptist church, in support of Ezedi.

In his evidence the reverend stated that he had previously attended Tribunals on four occasions in support of applicants for asylum based upon Christian conversion – but insisted he only supported those whose conversion was genuine.

In his ruling, Judge O’Hanlon said: “Having considered all of the evidence before me in the round, notwithstanding my concerns as to the honesty of the Appellant in relation to certain aspects of his account, I find that the Appellant had been consistent in his evidence with regard to his conversion to Christianity.

Xural.com