The Supreme Court in the UK has ruled that a drug-dealer of Jamaican parentage who was jailed for manslaughter cannot be deported as it would violate his human rights.
Thirty-year-old Eric Johnson was sentenced to nine years in prison for killing a man by hitting him with a piece of wood and stabbing him in his flat in Buckinghamshire, in 2007.
Then Home Secretary Theresa May said he should be deported to Jamaica, where he was born to a British father and Jamaican mother out of wedlock. Because he was illegitimate, he was not entitled automatically to become a British citizen on birth and then did not apply before he was 18.
Johnson argued he should not be deported as it would amount to discrimination. He lost his case in the Court of Appeal earlier this year but secured a victory in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Five judges said that to remove Johnson would be to punish him for his birth out of wedlock as he would have been entitled to British citizenship if his parents had been married.
All feeds
