A migrant who stabbed his wife to death has avoided deportation from Britain after claiming he would be killed in a revenge attack if returned to Turkey, in a case that has exposed fresh tensions at the heart of the immigration system.
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The 54-year-old, known in court as KD, served 14 years in prison for murdering his 23-year-old wife in a violent attack described by a judge as involving “very considerable violence”. Now released, he is fighting to remain in the UK using human rights laws — arguing that his life would be at risk because of a “blood feud” with his wife’s family.
The Home Office moved to deport him after his release, but a series of legal challenges has kept him in the country. Judges have acknowledged the discomfort surrounding the case, while making clear that legal principles must still be applied.
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“It is uncomfortable that a foreign criminal subject to deportation should be able to claim human rights protection because of an alleged blood feud resulting from his crime,” three Court of Appeal judges said. “But the appeal must be decided in accordance with principle.”
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KD entered Britain illegally in 2001, hidden in a lorry alongside his wife. He claimed asylum on the grounds of his Kurdish background, his Alevi Muslim faith and alleged political links. His application was rejected, and after exhausting his appeals, the couple remained in the UK unlawfully.
Months later, in December 2005, he killed his wife in what prosecutors described as a jealous rage, stabbing her multiple times. A jury later convicted him of murder after rejecting his claim of diminished responsibility. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years.
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Following his release after 14 years, KD renewed efforts to avoid deportation. Alongside a revived asylum claim, he argued that returning to Turkey would expose him to a real risk of being killed by his wife’s relatives seeking revenge.
A parole board assessed him as posing a low likelihood of general reoffending, but warned that he remained a risk of causing serious harm, particularly to intimate partners.
An immigration tribunal accepted that there was a credible threat to his life, concluding that his wife’s family would be likely to “either attempt or succeed in killing him” if he returned to his home village. It upheld part of his human rights claim on that basis.
Attempts by the Home Office to overturn that ruling have led to a prolonged legal battle. While the Court of Appeal has now rejected his asylum claim based on political persecution, it found that the issue of the alleged blood feud has not yet been fully resolved.
The case will now return to a higher tribunal for an expedited hearing to determine whether the threat he faces is sufficient to allow him to remain in the UK permanently.
The ruling is likely to intensify debate over the use of human rights laws by foreign offenders to resist deportation. Ministers are already preparing new legislation aimed at limiting repeated appeals and tightening the rules governing removals.
For critics, the case raises a stark question: whether a man can rely on the consequences of his own crime to secure the right to stay in Britain.
