R v Asfaw

In R v Asfaw, the appellant, an Ethiopian national, was charged with using a false instrument with intent and attempting to obtain services by deception. The Court of Appeal certified a point of law of general public importance for the House of Lords to decide: whether a defendant charged with an offence not specified in section 31(3) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 could rely on the protections afforded by article 31 of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The House of Lords held that the appellant was entitled to the protection of article 31(1) of the 1951 Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, and that she had a defence under section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to the charge of attempting to obtain services by deception, notwithstanding the fact that this offence was not one of those specified in section 31(3) of the 1999 Act. The court further held that it was an abuse of process to prosecute the appellant to conviction under count 2, and quashed her conviction and ordered her absolute discharge. The House of Lords concluded that the disparity between the scope of article 31 and the scope of section 31(1) and (3) could not be resolved by legitimate interpretation, and that the appellant should not have been subjected to any criminal penalty on either count of the indictment.