An Algerian migrant who was convicted of the rape of a child under the age of 15-years-old child cannot be deported to his home country in part due to the risk of persecution linked to his transgender identity, the Council of State of France has ruled.
The man, identified by French media outlets as Mehdi F (32), was convicted of the sexual assault of the minor in 2019 for which he received a custodial sentence of 4 years in 2021 and a order for deportation.
In 2020 he filed an asylum application which was refused by Ofpra – the French Office for the Protection of Stateless Refugees –in relation to article L511-7 of the French code of entry regarding foreign nationals.
The law states that refugee status can be refused or terminated if the applicant “has been convicted in France … either for a crime or for an offence constituting an act of terrorism or punishable by ten years’ imprisonment, and his presence constitutes a serious threat to French society.”
Mehdi appealed the refusal of his application to the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) which overturned the decision of Ofpra.
His lawyer, Isabelle Zribi, said Mehdi is, “in the process of changing gender to become a woman” and “feared being persecuted if he returned to Algeria because of her [his] sexuality and gender change.”
The decision of the CNDA said that “the documents in the file and the declarations of Mehdi F., particularly spontaneous and substantiated, made it possible to take as established his sexual orientation and his trans identity, as well as the persecutions resulting from them in the event of his return to Algeria”
La Journal du Dimanche reported that in 2022 a psychiatrist found that there was “no element supporting the hypothesis of a possible recurrence” regarding Mehdi who the CNDA said had “voluntarily engaged from the start of his detention in numerous care protocols and professional integration procedures which justified the reduction of his sentence,”
The CNDA said Mehdi “had expressed regrets and a desire for social and professional integration, and that he benefited from psychiatric follow-up and associative support.”
Ofpra appealed to the Council of State -France’s Supreme Court – to overrule the decision of the CNDA, however it instead upheld the decision and affirmed Mehdi’s refugee status saying the criminal offences committed “could not in themselves legally justify a decision refusing refugee status or terminating it” and that he behaviour had changed with the passing of time.