Scottish Appeals Court Says Government Did Not Adequately Consider Refugees' Claim of Conversion To Christianity

In TF and MA v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, (Scot. Ct. Sess., Aug. 30, 2018), Scotland's Inner House, Court of Session, held that the Secretary of State and appellate tribunals had failed to adequately consider certain evidence that Iranian asylum seekers had genuinely converted to Christianity after leaving Iran. All the parties agreed that individuals who converted from Islam to Christianity face a risk of persecution of forced to return to Iran. At issue however was:

the status of evidence from church leaders (or others holding positions of responsibility within a church) about the conduct of a person who has begun the process of admission into the church and as to the sincerity of his conversion to Christianity; as to the weight to be given to such evidence; and whether the usefulness of such evidence as a guide to the genuineness of the sur place conversion is undermined by findings that, in relation to other matters, the appellant, the applicant for asylum, has given evidence which is untrue or unreliable and/or may be said to undermine his basic credibility.

Law & Religion UK has more on the decision.