Overview
- The Upper Tribunal dismissed Aigard Balesvics’s appeal this week and concluded that removal to Latvia would not be disproportionate or breach Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.
- Balesvics was jailed for six and a half years in 2023 after a trial heard that his victim repeatedly said “no” and tried to get away during two rapes in her home.
- The deportation decision dates to 2023, his written representations were treated as an Article 8 claim, and the case passed through conflicting rulings before the Home Secretary appealed to the Upper Tribunal.
- Prison release rules mean Balesvics could be eligible for conditional release in December next year, at which point the Home Office says it will move to implement the removal order.
- The ruling highlights how tribunals apply the test of ‘very compelling circumstances’ against the public interest in deporting foreign national offenders and gives the government a legal precedent it can cite in future removals.