Adan, Mahad

Mahad Adan was convicted in September 2006 of failure to produce a satisfactory immigration document and received a sentence of five months’ imprisonment.

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

Mr Adan, a Somalian national, was arrested for failing to produce an immigration document after being approached by an Immigration Officer at Heathrow Airport.

He stated that he did not have a passport because he wanted to claim asylum. He had used a Djibouti passport supplied by an agent to travel to the UK. Mr Adan had returned the passport to the agent onboard the aircraft.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to an offence under the Immigration and Asylum (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.

The CCRC considered that in light of the judgment in the case of Thet v Director of Public Prosecutions (2006), Mr Adan had a statutory defence available to him in relation to the charge of failing to produce an immigration document, namely a “reasonable excuse”.

Somalia had not had a passport issuing authority since 1991 and the UK government had not recognised Somali passports since July 2003.

The CCRC concluded that it was an abuse of process to prosecute Mr Adan because he had both a statutory defence and was an asylum seeker who was prosecuted in circumstances which deprived them of any defence based on Article 31 of the Refugee Convention.

Consequently, there was a real possibility the Crown Court would agree to vacate Mr Adan’s 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.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in June 2012.