Joharchi, Pooneh

Pooneh Joharchi, an Iranian national, had been arrested after arriving at Gatwick airport without an immigration document.

She stated that she wished to claim asylum as she was at risk of political persecution if returned to Iran. She had escaped detention in Iran following her involvement in a demonstration against the results of presidential elections.

On the day that she arrived in the UK, she was charged with failing to have a satisfactory immigration document contrary to sections 2(1) and (9) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004.

The following day she pleaded guilty at Crawley Magistrates’ Court and was sentence to two months’ imprisonment.

In December 2009 Ms Joharchi was granted asylum with five years’ leave to remain.

Ms Joharchi had no right of appeal against her conviction because she had pleaded guilty in a magistrates’ court. She applied to the CCRC for a review of her case in December 2013.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that Ms Joharchi had a statutory defence to the charges on which she was convicted available to her under section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, namely a “reasonable excuse” for not producing a genuine immigration document.

This defence would probably have succeeded and consequently, there was a real possibility that the Crown Court would set aside Ms Joharchi’s guilty plea and find that in all the circumstances it should not uphold the conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in March 2015.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction.