Hiiraan Online
10/2/2023
Today from Hiiraan Online:
Home
Somali Map
Sports
Opinion
RSS
Somali Music
Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus
advertisements
Woman with 'two identities' told she can't wed
by Tim Healy
Thursday, May 17, 2012
advertisements
AN Irishman and a woman who claims to be Somali -- but whose fingerprints are said to match those of a Tanzanian national -- have lost their bid to be allowed to marry.
Mr Justice John Hedigan said yesterday that it was clear Lelia Ismail Tahir "has at least two identities".
The judge dismissed the challenge by Ms Tahir, of Drishane Castle accommodation centre, Millstreet, Co Cork, and Raymond Paul Sheehan, of Shandon Way, Shandon Street, Cork, to refusals by the Registrar for Co Cork and an tArd Chlaraitheoir to issue them with a marriage registration form.
They had been refused documents because Ms Tahir had not provided sufficient evidence of her claimed Somalian identity.
Ms Tahir arrived here in June 2008 and applied for asylum, the judge noted. Some weeks after her appeal against the refusal of asylum was rejected, she and Mr Sheehan decided to marry.
They were given an appointment for late June 2010 to fulfil the necessary requirements to provide the required three month notification of their intention to marry.
Their solicitors wrote to the Registrar in late May 2010, stating that Ms Tahir was a Somali national who was unable to obtain identity documents.
On being told evidence of identity was required under law, their solicitors replied there was difficult obtaining identity documents from Somalia.
The identity issue remained unresolved during several visits by the couple to the Registrar's office, After their third visit in August 2010, a detective from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) informed the registrar he believed Ms Tahir was not from Somalia.
Credibility
The Registrar referred the file to an tArd Chlaraitheoir who contacted the GNIB and was advised there were serious questions about Ms Tahir's identity.
Dismissing their case, Mr Justice Hedigan said Ms Tahir had claimed to be a Somali national but failed to state asylum was refused because her fingerprints matched those of a Tanzanian national.
Ms Tahir's explanation for the matching fingerprints -- that she met a man in Kenya who said he could get her documents for travelling and took her to an office "very far from Kenya" where her fingerprints could have been taken -- lacked credibility.
Irish Independent
UPDATE 2-Horn Petroleum suspends drilling at Somalia well
- Reuters
American jihadi craves fast food, misses family
- AFP
Influx of displaced families creates new crisis in Horn of Africa border town
- Alert Net
Somaliland military court sentences 17 civilians to death
- GlobalPost
TEDxMogadishu Speaker Lineup
- TEDxMogadishu
Relief as $2.85m 'miracle' ransom raised to free father, crew
- Gulf News
7 1/2 years for 'unprovoked' fatal assault
- Ottawa Sun
Local medical community mourns psychiatrist
- The Sun Times
Federal official urges local Somalis to aid their broken country
- Columbus Dispatch
Cultures & immigration beat: Somalis decry new rule on visas
- Star Tribune
In Somalia, TEDxMogadishu conference aims to shift the focus to capital’s rebirth
- Toronto Star
Somalia’s Puntland spurs India oil hope
- Deccan Chronicle
The New American Academy in Edina offers tutoring for Somali schoolchildren as well as classes for their parents.
- Star Tribune
Home
Email