Tesfagabir, Fissaha Kaleab

Fissaha Kaleab Tesfagabir was convicted in November 2005 of failure to produce a satisfactory immigration document and received a sentence of 12 weeks’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in March 2011.

Mr Tesfagabir, an Eritrean national, had claimed asylum in the UK.

When Mr Tesfagabir was interviewed, he was asked whether he had his own passport or the document which he had used to travel to the UK. Mr Tesfagabir answered that he did not and was subsequently prosecuted for failure to produce an immigration document.

Following review, the CCRC considered that Mr Tesfagabir had a statutory defence in relation to the charge of failure to produce an immigration document following the Administrative Court’s judgment in the case of Thet v Director of Public Prosecutions (2006), namely a “reasonable excuse”.

Mr Tesfagabir had been persecuted on the grounds of religion by the Eritrean authorities and was therefore unable to obtain a passport. This provided Mr Tesfagabir with a complete defence to the charge.

The CCRC concluded that it would be an affront to justice to allow Mr Tesfagabir’s guilty plea to stand and consequently there was a real possibility the Crown Court would agree to vacate his guilty plea and then order a stay of proceedings or, if he was re-prosecuted, that he would be acquitted.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2012.