Shwaish, Sleman

Sleman Shwaish, a Syrian Kurd, arrived at Heathrow Airport on a flight from Turkey in December 2012. When he presented himself at Immigration Control he admitted that he did not have a passport and claimed asylum in the UK.

Mr Swaish was arrested and, following legal advice, pleaded guilty the same month at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court to failing to produce an immigration document, contrary to section 2(1) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004. He received a sentence of three months’ imprisonment.

Mr Shwaish’s asylum claim was based on the fact that he had refused to be conscripted into the Syrian army and as a result was considered a traitor and was being sought by the authorities.

He was granted asylum with five years’ leave to remain in the UK in April 2013 and was subsequently granted indefinite leave to remain by the Home Office.

Because he pleaded guilty in a magistrates’ court, Mr Shwaish had no right of appeal. He applied in to the CCRC for a review of his case in March 2017.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that Mr Shwaish had a statutory defence to the charge on which he was convicted available to him under section 2 of the 2004 Act, namely a “reasonable excuse”.

The legal advice provided to Mr Shwaish deprived him of that defence. On the evidence available, it was likely that the defence would have succeeded.

Consequently, there was a real possibility the Crown Court would allow Mr Shwaish to vacate his guilty plea and in all the circumstances would not uphold the conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in November 2018.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in March 2019.