A MAN CLEARED of a sexual assault on a teenage girl at Citywest in Dublin will be deported to war-torn Sudan after agreement was reached with the Sudanese government, The Journal has learned. 

The incident near Santry in Dublin involved a young girl who was missing from her Tusla care home. It was alleged the man kissed her when they met near the hotel used as an IPAS centre. 

As news filtered out about the alleged incident, it prompted two nights of rioting in the area.

Last week the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew charges of sexual assault against the Sudanese man in court. Sources have said this decision was taken by the DPP because it believed that a successful prosecution was unlikely, following a review of the file. 

Counsel for the DPP made an application for nolle prosequi, or to strike out, the two charges in court on 23 October. Judge Martin Nolan then freed the man, but gardaí immediately rearrested him on foot of a deportation order. The man had been held in prison on remand since his charge in October of last year and was viewing proceedings on video link.

Sources say that the move came as a surprise to some garda investigators, who believed the case was strong enough to be successfully progressed. 

A GNIB officer at Dublin Airport during a deportation operation. An Garda Siochana An Garda Siochana

Ireland does not have a deportation agreement with Sudan, but sources have said that gardaí from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) are working with the embassy of Sudan in Dublin. 

Behind-the-scenes preparations are now underway to return the man to Sudan, with the logistics proving to be complex.  

It is understood that the gardaí are trying to determine how to get the man, who is in custody in the Midlands Prison, from Ireland to Sudan.

Sudan is currently wracked by a civil war between the government-backed Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia group formerly known as the Janjaweed, which the International Criminal Court has previously accused of genocide.

Fighting has taken place across the country with accusations of large-scale atrocities and fighting in the capital city of Khartoum, limiting international connections to the country.

More than 150,000 people have been killed in the war, many of them civilians. There are 8.9 million people displaced and some 33.7 million people in need of direct humanitarian assistance.  

It is an exceptionally difficult region to get to, either through South Sudan via Ethiopia or from a crossing with the desert from Egypt or Chad to the east.

A security source said gardaí were told that it is “important to show that Sudan is not a difficult place to deport people”. 

A complicating factor for the Irish authorities is that the man needed either a passport or a document known as a laissez-passer in order to be deported. The agreement reached with the Sudanese embassy in Dublin means that this has been resolved. 

A garda van burns during violence at City West after an alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl at the facility. Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

Deportation order

The man had already gone through a number of failed bids to stay in the country in recent years and a warrant had been issued to remove him from the country. 

The GNIB had not executed the order at the time of the incident at Citywest; however, once he was cleared and released it immediately sought to execute the deportation. 

There is generally a prohibition in Irish and international law on deporting someone to an active war zone or where they could face a risk of injury or death. The law governing such deportations is under Section Three of the Immigration Act 1999. There is also case law from courts here and in Europe. 

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties and the Refugee Council were asked for comment but did not respond before publication. 

A garda spokeswoman referred queries about the decision to withdraw the prosecution to the office of the DPP.

The DPP replied: “As you may be aware, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions does not comment on individual cases and therefore I cannot assist you with your query.”