The High Court has refused a Zimbabwean national permission to challenge the rejection of his international protection appeal.
Mr Justice Sean Gillane delivered an ex tempore ruling on 5 December 2025, finding that D.E.M. had not established the “substantial grounds” required to bring judicial review proceedings against the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.
D.E.M. applied for international protection in Ireland on 31 May 2023. The International Protection Office later recommended that he should not be declared a refugee or granted subsidiary protection. He appealed, but the Tribunal affirmed that recommendation in a decision dated 30 September 2025.
The Tribunal divided the disputed factual basis of his claim into two parts. One concerned his account that he had been abducted from his home and assaulted by four men following a controversy about the teaching of the majority language in local schools. The other concerned a claim that he had been summoned, convicted and fined by a court in Zimbabwe.
The Tribunal made adverse credibility findings on both matters. D.E.M. did not seek to challenge the second finding in the judicial review application.
Instead, he argued that the Tribunal had misunderstood his evidence about the alleged abduction, failed to give adequate reasons and reached irrational findings without an evidential basis.
Gillane J rejected those arguments at the leave stage. He found that the Tribunal had carefully considered the claim, including country-of-origin information, and was entitled to take account of discrepancies and what it regarded as vagueness in D.E.M.’s accounts.
The judge said the High Court was effectively being asked to second-guess factual credibility assessments that were for the Tribunal to make.
He also noted that the judicial review proceedings had been filed outside the applicable time period and would have required an extension. He expressed doubt that a good and sufficient reason had been shown for the delay, but did not finally decide that issue because leave was being refused in any event.