MUBAROK ABDUL v. TORTURE CLAIMS APPEAL BOARD / NON-REFOULEMENT CLAIMS PETITION OFFICE [Decision on Leave Application]

bjbj HCAL 224/2026 [2026] HKCFI 2475 IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST No. 224 of 2026 BETWEEN Mubarok Abdul Applicant Torture Claims Appeal Board/ Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office Putative Respondent Director of Immigration Putative Interested Party Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review NOTIFICATION of the Judge s decision (Ord. 53 r. 3) Following; ( consideration of documents only; or consideration of documents and oral submissions by the Applicant in open court; Order by Deputy High Court Judge K.W. Lung: Leave to apply for Judicial Review be refused. Observations for the Applicant: THE APPLICATION The applicant applies for leave to apply for judicial review of the Decision dated 19 December 2025 of the Torture Claims Appeal Board ( the Board s Decision ), dismissing the appeal against the Director s Decision as described below. The applicant appeared before the Court on 15 April 2026. Pursuant to Order 20, rule 8 and Order 53, rule 3(6) of the Rules of the High Court, Form 86 is amended to the effect that the proposed respondent is the Board and the Director of Immigration is the interested party. The Board s Decision is written in Chinese. This Form CALL-1 is written in English because the applicant submitted his written submissions in English. The applicant The applicant is a national of Indonesia. He is an illegal immigrant. He lodged a non-refoulement claim with the Director of Immigration ( the Director ) on the basis that, if refouled, he will be harmed or killed by his creditor because he was unable to repay the loan. Details of his claim are set out in the Board s Decision. See hyperlink. HYPERLINK "https://legalref.judiciary.hk/doc/judg/html/vetted/other/en/2026/HCAL000224_2026_files/the_Board's_Decision.pdf" https://legalref.judiciary.hk/doc/judg/html/vetted/other/en/2026/HCAL000224_2026_files/the_Board's_Decision.pdf The Director s Decision The Director considered the applicant s claim in relation to the following risks: risk of torture under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap. 115, ( the Ordinance Torture risk ); risk of violation of the right to life under Article 2 of Section 8 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Cap. 383 ( HKBOR BOR 2 risk ); risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment ( CIDTP ) under Article 3 of Section 8 of the HKBOR ( BOR 3 risk ); and risk of persecution by reference to the non-refoulement principle under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol ( Refugee Convention Persecution risk ). By way of Notice of Decision dated 31 October 2025 ( the Director s Decision ), the Director dismissed the applicant s claim on all applicable risks because it was unsubstantiated. The Board s Decision The applicant appealed the Director s Decision to the Board. On 8 December 2025, the Board conducted an oral hearing for his appeal. He had given oral evidence and answered the Board s questions. Having considered the evidence, the Board made the findings below. The applicant failed to persuade the Board that he had borrowed money from his creditor. [37] His story that he had borrowed a loan from his creditor was unbelievable. [50] Even if the Board were to accept his evidence, there was no evidence that his creditor had done physical violence to his family members. [51] There was no evidence that his creditor intended to harm or kill him. [57] There was no evidence that the state was involved. [67] State protection will be available to him if he returns to Indonesia. [79] & [81] Internal relocation is viable. [121] For the reasons above, the Board dismissed his appeal and affirmed the Director s Decision. Application for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board s Decision The applicant has filed Form 86 dated 21 January 2026 for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board s Decision. In support of his application, the applicant lodged a written submission, in which he said that the adjudicator had given insufficient reason to dismiss his appeal and asked for a review of the Board s Decision. DISCUSSION The role of this Court is supervisory, meaning that it ensures that the Board complied with the public law requirements in coming to the Board s Decision on the applicant s appeal. The Court will not usurp the fact-finding power vested in the Director and the Board. See TK v Michael C Jenkins Esq and Director of Immigration [2013] 1 HKC 526, 40 and Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524, 14 (1). The Court will bear in mind that the Board s Decision should be examined with rigorous examination and anxious scrutiny. Before me, the applicant said that he had told the Board his full story and the Board s Decision was not wrong. In Re: Kartini [2019] HKCA 1022, 9 September 2019, the Court of Appeal held: 13. (1) Assessment of evidence and COI materials and risk of harm, state protection and viability of internal relocation are primarily within the province of the Board (and the Director). The court will not intervene by way of judicial review unless there are errors of law or procedural unfairness or irrationality in the decision of the Board. In view of the applicant s admission that the Board s Decision is not wrong, his reason under paragraph 13 has become insignificant. The applicant fails to show that he has any realistic prospect of success in his proposed judicial review of the Board s Decision. DISPOSITION I refuse to grant leave to the applicant to apply for judicial review of the Board s Decision. Accordingly, I dismiss his application. Dated the 6th day of May 2026 (Allen LEE) for Registrar, High Court Where leave to apply has been granted, Applicants and their legal advisers are reminded of their obligation to reconsider the merits of their application in the light of the Respondent s evidence Notes for the Applicant: If leave has been granted, the Applicant or the Applicant s solicitors must: a) serve on the respondent and such interested parties as may be directed by the Court the order granting leave and any directions given within 14 days after the leave was granted (Order 53, rule 4A); b) issue the originating summons within 14 days after the grant of leave and serve it in accordance with Order 53, rule 5; and c) supply to every other party copies of every affidavit which the Applicant proposes to use at the hearing, including the affidavit in support of the application for leave (Order 53, rule 6(5)). Sent to the Applicant on 6/5/2026 Mubarok Abdul Applicant s ref. no: Nil. Sent to the Putative Respondent / the Putative Respondent s solicitors / such Putative Interested Parties as may be directed by the Court / the Putative Interested Parties solicitors on 6/5/2026 Torture Claims Appeal Board/Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office Putative Respondent s ref. no.: USM 27522 Director of Immigration Putative Interested Party s ref. no.: INCL-2085-25 Department of Justice, Senior Assistant Law Officer (Civil Law) (Civil Litigation Unit 2) Form CALL-1 PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT gd7U h]%z gdoQb gdZe hoQb hoQb hoQb hoQb r`\W\R hXKk gd h hT^s hhIS hhIS hhIS h@"! gd!P gdhIS hIha hIha hIha ~m~m~m]mO hIha hIha |kkU }yyyrjf hW\ ; #v ; #v ph@@@ ph@@@ phFx ph`^\ [Content_Types].xml _rels/.rels theme/theme/themeManager.xml K Y, sQ}# theme/theme/theme1.xml z)P -zh 83;3;{ ]XS1IH 0H!A Ssd- ]A3U mH#[ A\;> K}*7c ^I77 >g^* y')f ZI$G ,{uk< WV j k3 zjv3,j X1? Xjg YIsR3 gm~x theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.rels 5 6?$Q K(M&$R(.1 [Content_Types].xmlPK _rels/.relsPK theme/theme/themeManager.xmlPK theme/theme/theme1.xmlPK theme/theme/_rels/themeManager.xml.relsPK <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <a:clrMap xmlns:a="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/drawingml/2006/main" bg1="lt1" tx1="dk1" bg2="lt2" tx2="dk2" accent1="accent1" accent2="accent2" accent3="accent3" accent4="accent4" accent5="accent5" accent6="accent6" hlink="hlink" folHlink="folHlink"/> bf"@.~ b Bo b Bo V?-W GQoU KimWan Lung Normal.dotm Cheung HoKin Microsoft Office Word "System "System "System Times New Roman Times New Roman HCAL 224/2026 [2026] HKCFI 2475 Times New Roman IN THE HIGH COURT OF HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST No. of 202 BETWEEN Mubaro Abdul Applicant Torture Claims Appeal Board/ refoulement Claims Petition Office Putative Respondent Director of Immigration Putative Interested Party Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review NOTIFICATION of the Judge decision (Ord. 53 r. 3) Following Wingdings 2 consideration of documents only; or consideration of documents and oral submissions by the Applicant in open court; Order by Deputy High Court Judge K.W. Lung Times New Roman Leave to apply for Judicial Review be refused Observations for the Applicant Times New Roman THE APPLICATION "Arial The applicant applies for leave to apply for judicial review of the Decision dated 19 December 2025 of the Torture Claims Appeal Board ( the Board s Decision dismissing the appeal against the Director s Decision as described below. The applicant appeared before the Court on 15 April 2026. Pursuant to Order 20, rule 8 and Order 53, rule 3(6) of the Rules of the High Court, Form 86 is amended to the effect that the proposed respondent is the Board and the Director of Immigration is the interested party. "Arial THE APPLICATION The applicant The Director s Decision The Board s Decision Application for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board s Decision DISCUSSION DISPOSITION Title Headings _PID_HLINKS <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><b:Sources xmlns:b="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography" xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography" SelectedStyle="\APASixthEditionOfficeOnline.xsl" StyleName="APA" Version="6"></b:Sources> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <ds:datastoreItem ds:itemID="{E0BEC402-8635-452E-97BD-A9AAD2309CC0}" xmlns:ds="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/customXml"><ds:schemaRefs><ds:schemaRef ds:uri="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/bibliography"/></ds:schemaRefs></ds:datastoreItem> Microsoft Word 97-2003 Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8