A decision by Sweden’s Migration Court to grant refugee status to an Iranian man—despite repeated rejections—has returned to the spotlight after the man was remanded in custody on suspicion of rape.
The man, now 41, first sought asylum in Sweden more than seven years ago. His initial application, based on claims of political persecution in Iran, was rejected by the Swedish Migration Agency due to inconsistent and contradictory statements.
He later submitted a new claim, stating that he was homosexual and therefore at risk in his home country. Authorities again dismissed the application, concluding that he had failed to make his case credible.
Following a media-covered protest by asylum seekers in 2019, the case was reviewed by the Migration Court in Gothenburg. While the presiding judge and the Migration Agency’s lawyers agreed that the legal criteria for asylum were not met, three politically appointed lay judges—two from the Liberal Party and one from the Left Party—overruled the assessment and granted the man refugee status, the strongest form of protection under Swedish law.
In October 2025, the court denied the man permanent residence due to previous criminal convictions, citing uncertainty regarding his future conduct. In December, he was arrested and remanded in custody on probable cause for the rape of a woman. Prosecutors confirmed that the alleged victim contacted police shortly after the incident and that the suspect was detained within an hour.
Liberal Party member Staffan Josefsson was among the three lay judges who, in 2022, ruled in favour of granting refugee status to the now-remanded 41-year-old man. The 78-year-old politician continues to serve as a lay judge at the Migration Court. He claimed
We lay judges agreed that he should be allowed to stay. But now, as you say, he is in custody for a crime. You can’t know in advance how things will turn out.
The case has exposed the double standards in Sweden’s justice system, where the system appears more willing to shield a criminal suspect than to protect Salwan Najem, the critic of Islam who faced threats and attacks following his Quran burnings in 2023. Najem is now seeking asylum in the United States, since Swedish authorities failed to protect him despite serious security threats, while effectively enforcing an Islamic blasphemy law in Sweden.
