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ConCourt finds that Home Affairs flouted law in Rwandan `assassin` case

Source: The Star, 21/12/2018


Home Affairs has been found to have flouted the law by refusing to
allow a Rwandan national fearing persecution back home to apply for an
asylum-seeker permit.
Alex Ruta, a former soldier who was allegedly sent to South Africa to
assassinate exiled opponents of President Paul Kagame, was barred from
applying for asylum because he brought it after being illegal in the
country for 15 months and being jailed for road offences.
Ruta, who was allegedly smuggled into South Africa without any papers
by Rwanda’s National Security Services, was on a police protection
programme when he was arrested for driving a motorcycle without a
licence. He stopped Home Affairs from deporting him by winning a
battle at the high court, but the department later had this ruling
overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
On Thursday, Justice Edwin Cameron ruled on Ruta’s appeal application
against the SCA’s judgment, and found in Ruta’s favour.
Justice Cameron said the SCA itself had clarified in several rulings
that Home Affairs had no grounds to decline processing asylum-seeker
applications of foreign nationals who presented themselves to its
offices after being in the country illegally.


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