Georgian 'Jehovah's Witness' who claimed religious persecution did not know basics of the faith
High Court Reporters
A Georgian man who claimed asylum in Ireland on the grounds of religious persecution has failed to secure permission to challenge the refusal to grant him refugee status after he failed to answer basic questions about being a supposed Jehovah’s Witness.
The 31-year-old made a claim for international protection to the Minister for Justice in August 2022 on the basis that if he was returned to Georgia, he would suffer religious persecution because of his claimed faith.
In February, he was denied refugee status, and in a judgment published on Friday, Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan denied him permission to pursue a legal challenge to the decision refusing him international protection after the International Protection Office (IPO) reached “negative credibility” findings about him.
The IPO questioned the man about his religion, considered some of his answers to be “wrong”, and informed the man in August 2024 of their decision not to grant him asylum.
In an interview, the applicant was asked how baptism takes place for Jehovah's Witnesses and he answered that a head was tilted into water but according to the Jehovah's Witness Organisation, the head must be fully submerged for baptism.
The applicant was asked who Michael the Archangel is and he responded: "I haven't heard of Michael. I know Johann."
According to information available, Michael the Archangel is, for Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus Christ.
The applicant was asked who founded the Jehovah's Witness religion, and he replied: "I don't have this kind of detail".
In the Jehovah's Witnesses' faith, only 144,000 people, when they die, will be·with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven.
However, when the applicant was asked how many people will go to heaven, he replied: "As many as praise the lord. There is no such restriction".
When asked about family life or dating rules for Jehovah's Witnesses, he responded: "There is no such restriction. They accept normal dating."
Jehovah's Witnesses live by strict rules that encompass all aspects of family life, including dating.
The applicant was also asked why Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, but he did not know, even though he claimed to have converted to the religion nine years previously.
The man was asked if he could explain his lack of knowledge and said: "I don't know. I don't read the bible too often."
As a result, the IPO found it not to be credible that he converted to the Jehovah's Witness faith.
Claims about being threatened and assaulted were also found to not be specific enough to be verifiable.
The man appealed the IPO decision to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT), which refused his action last February.
“The appellant’s substantial lack of knowledge as to a faith he states he embraced some nine years ago, and his lack of explanation as to why he does not have that knowledge is a strong factor against the credibility of his account of a sincere conversion to the Jehovah's Witness faith.
"Accordingly, on the balance of probabilities, the tribunal rejects the appellant’s assertion that he has converted to the Jehovah's Witness religion,” said IPAT.
In seeking judicial review at the High Court, he advanced several grounds for his legal challenge, including that IPAT erred in failing to consider material relevant to the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Georgia and that IPAT took a “too literal” interpretation of the religion.
In her decision published today, Ms Justice Phelan refused the man permission to pursue a legal challenge against the IPAT decision made against him, saying he had not met the threshold for judicial review.
“It seems to me that the complaints maintained are in the realm of ‘trivial’ and ‘tenuous’. Accordingly, I refuse leave in this case,” said Ms Justice Phelan.
