Following a Hotline for Refugee and Migrants petition: An asylum-Seekers who was nearly deported to Sudan has been freed

Following a prolonged legal battle, the High Court justices overturned the ruling of a District Court and recommended that Sadik al-Sadik be released from the Holot detention facility. The Ministry of Interior accepted the recommendation and decided to release Sadik.

Sadik “agreed” to leave Israel for a third country in Africa after being summoned to indefinite detention in Holot in May 2014. After arriving in Ethiopia, he was shocked to find himself about to be deported back to Sudan. Sadik refused to get on the plane to Sudan where his life would be in danger. He found himself stuck at the airport in Addis Ababa for eight days. Eventually Ethiopian immigration authorities forced him to board a plane back to Israel – against his will. After returning to Israel he was detained in the Holot facility. The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants filed a petition against his detention, which was rejected in the Administrative Tribunal for Appeals and in the District Court.

In the Supreme Court’s hearing, the justices addressed the irregularities of the case and “the grim picture that emerges from the factual basis” of the petition in which “a person who sought asylum was sent to Khartoum.”

In the case of Mutasim Ali, the justices made it clear that they are attentive and aware of the circumstances of the case and the fact that Mutasim has been detained for months although he filed an asylum claim two and a half years ago. The justices mentioned that his appeal is connected on broader issues that may be resolved in the High Court ruling regarding the appeal of human rights NGOs, including the Hotline, against the latest iteration of the Anti-Infiltration Law. The case was deferred for review and a decision will be made later on.

Sadik al-Sadik: “I am so so happy to be freed, but I’m also saddened to leave all my friends who are still locked up in Holot. The struggle isn’t over yet, and I hope that they too will receive a just decision.”

Mutasim Ali: “We went through so many legal proceedings in courts and there’s still no decision on my asylum claim. I keep waiting while detained in Holot and hope for a similar decision that was made in my friend Sadik’s case.”

Adv. Asaf Weitzen and Adv. Rachel Friedman of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants: “We’re happy that after nine months in Holot, Sadik will finally be released today. We also hope that a similar decision will be made in Mutasim’s case, who has spent a similar period in Holot and whose asylum claim was filed back in 2012.”