Court of Cassation dismisses appeal by Belgian state against the decision to free Sudanese refugee

Court of Cassation dismisses appeal by Belgian state against the decision to free Sudanese refugee
The Court of Cassation has ruled that Belgian authorities paid no heed to the risk of Sudanese citizens, sent back to their country of origin, being subject to torture and inhumane treatment.

On Wednesday, the Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal by the Belgian state against a decision by the Brussels Indictment Division ordering that a refugee be set free. The Brussels Indictment Division had stated, at the beginning of January, that the Asylum and Immigration Office had not checked all of the necessary information concerning the current situation in Sudan, before deporting a Sudanese refugee. It had ordered that this man, who was detained with a view to being deported, be set free.

The judges of the Indictment Division highlighted the lack of care by the Asylum and Immigration Office and the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, in the management of Sudanese cases generally

They said that the Belgian authorities paid no heed to the risk of Sudanese citizens, sent back to their country of origin, being subject to torture and inhumane treatment.

The Asylum and Immigration Office then announced that it would appeal this decision by the Indictment Division. At the time, the spokeswoman for the Asylum and Immigration Office, Dominique Ernould, said, “We think that the decision does not correspond to those made by other judges in similar cases.”


The Brussels Times


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