The recent UK High Court case of SK (Zimbabwe) v. Secretary of State for the Home Office dealt with the question of whether an individual who was involved with the Zimbabwean political party responsible for farm invasions could be a refugee. The Zimbabwean asylum seeker had been actively involved in two farm invasions and admitted that she had beaten farm workers in two invasions intended to drive the farmers away from their farms.
The Upper Tribunal had found that the crimes committed amounted to crimes against humanity. The appellant argued that the crimes she had committed lacked the hall-mark of crimes against humanity. The High Court found that "where the conduct in question is admitted by SK, involves direct participation in severe beatings and joint enterprise responsibility in the two farm invasions as a whole...and where this is done as part of a widespread and systematic attack on such farms for political and discriminatory aims such as can fairly be described as persecutory and as involving the forcible transfer of populations...it has not been possible...to show that the Upper Tribunal’s findings...are not open in law" and therefore decided the appellant should be excluded from refugee status.
Click here to read a post about the case at the UK Human Rights blog.
Click here to read the judgment.