Abraham, Daniel

Daniel Abraham, an Eritrean national, arrived at Belfast Airport in May 2014 and presented a false Italian identity card to immigration officials.

When questioned he admitted that he was Eritrean, that his identity card was false and said he wished to claim asylum in the UK on the basis that he was at risk of religious persecution if returned to Eritrea.

Mr Abraham was arrested and, after legal advice, admitted to using the false document, contrary to section 6 of the Identity Documents Act 2010, to try to board a flight from Belfast to Birmingham.

Three days after he arrived in the UK, Mr Abraham pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document without reasonable excuse. He was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment.

Mr Abraham was granted asylum with five years’ leave to remain in October 2014. He applied to the CCRC for a review of his conviction in July 2015.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that Mr Abraham had a statutory defence to the charge on which he was convicted available to him under section 31 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The legal advice provided to Mr Abraham deprived him of that defence.

Consequently, there was a real possibility that the County Court would allow Mr Abraham to vacate his guilty plea and conclude that in all the circumstances it should not uphold the conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in August 2017.

The County Court quashed the conviction in October 2017.