A SYRIAN who left the PLO and joined a Libyan fundamentalist Islamic group fled to Europe after he decided against carrying out a suicide bombing mission in Egypt, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Walid Agha Higres is applying for political asylum after arriving here last Wednesday.
The court was told Mr Higres joined the PLO in 1978 aged 13. He was in the Fatah branch, under the command of Yasser Arafat, until 1988. He left because he was posted to Libya, which he considered a demotion.
Yesterday, he was given leave by Mr Justice Kelly to seek to challenge the Minister for Justice's refusal to consider his application for asylum. An interim order restraining the Minister from removing him from the State was continued.
Mr Bill Shipsey SC, for Mr Higres, reading an affidavit by Ms Noeline Blackwell, solicitor, said his client was born in Fik in the Golan Heights, south cast Syria, before the area was invaded by Israel in 1967. He moved to Damascus.
He joined the PLO and while a member spent some years in Lebanon, Tunisia and Iraq he attended a military training school in the latter. He was posted to Libya and then left the PLO.
He got involved with a Libyan fundamentalist Islamic group and was asked to carry out a suicide bombing in Egypt for this group. Having originally undertaken to carry out the mission, Mr Higres had a change of heart and, abandoning the people with whom he was to undertake the bombing, fled to Europe.
He was refused entry to a number of western European countries but was finally allowed to enter France, where he appeared to have applied for refugee status. He left France and was allowed to enter Switzerland, where he presented a request for recognition of his refugee status.
Ms Blackwell said they had not been able to ascertain why he did not receive refugee status in either country.
Mr Higres's permission to live in Switzerland expired on June 30th. He feared he would be deported by the Swiss authorities to Syria. Because of his fear of being persecuted in Syria by reason of his involvement with the PLO and his failure to comply with the requirement to fulfil his military service obligations in Syria as a member of the PLO, he decided to seek asylum in Ireland.
He arrived at Dublin Airport from Switzerland on Wednesday last. He had a false passport in the name of Angelo Zuccarno. He was stopped by an immigration officer. He admitted the passport was false and told the officer he was seeking asylum.
Ms Blackwell said she was in formed Mr Higres had been refused leave to land on the grounds that he was not in possession of a valid passport or other document which established his nationality and identity to the satisfaction of the immigration officer.
On Thursday, he contacted Amnesty International, who provided her name. She contacted the Department of Justice but as no response was forthcoming, they went to the High Court to seek an injunction. Mr Higres had not been given an opportunity to present his claim for refugee status.