An Iraqi artist was threatened with death after holding an art exhibition in Liverpool promoting the work of journalists allegedly murdered by Kurdish militias.
But the man, who cannot be named, was refused asylum in the UK by Home Secretary Priti Patel, and had to take his fight to court.
An initial hearing went against him, but the man appealed to the High Court’s Immigration Upper Tribunal and won, with Judge Gaenor Bruce describing herself as “wholly satisfied” that he was a “credible witness” after a hearing in Manchester.
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The judge also noted that the artist “did not fit the profile” of an economic migrant, having previously turned down a chance to study a PHD at Cardiff University in order to take up a role as a lecturer in fine art at the University of Sulaymaniyah in Iraq.
According to Judge Bruce’s ruling, handed down this week, the man held the small exhibition in March 2018, featuring the words of murdered journalists from the Independent Kurdish Region (IKR) in Iraq on wall displays….
