The High Court has refused to hear a challenge against a refusal to grant refugee status to a Georgian man who displayed a "substantial lack of knowledge" about the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses when claiming he would be persecuted for his religion if returned home.

The 31-year-old made a claim for international protection to the Minister for Justice in August 2022 on the basis that if he were returned to Georgia, he would suffer religious persecution because of his faith. He was refused refugee status in February.

The International Protection Office (IPO) reached "negative credibility" findings about the man, having found some of his answers to questions about the religion to be wrong. They informed him of their decision not to grant asylum in August 2024.

In a judgment published on Friday, Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan refused permission for the man to pursue a legal challenge to the IPO's decision, describing his complaints as "trivial" and "tenuous".

In an interview with the IPO, the applicant said that baptism for Jehovah's Witnesses involves the head being tilted into water. According to the Jehovah Witness Organisation, the head must be fully submerged for baptism.

He said he hadn't heard of the archangel Michael, who is, for Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus Christ.

When asked who founded the Jehovah's Witness religion, he replied: "I don't have this kind of detail".

In the Jehovah's Witness' faith, only 144,000 people, when they die, will be with Jesus in the kingdom of heaven. However, when the applicant was asked how many people will go to heaven, he replied: "As many as praise the lord. There is no such restriction".

When asked about family life or dating rules for Jehovah's Witnesses, he responded: "There is no such restriction. They accept normal dating." Jehovah's Witnesses live by strict rules that encompass all aspects of family life, including dating.

The applicant did not know why Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions, even though he claimed to have converted to the religion nine years previously.

When asked if he could offer an explanation for his lack of knowledge, he said: "I don't know. I don't read the bible too often."

The IPO found it not to be credible that he converted to the Jehovah's Witness faith.

Claims about being threatened and assaulted were also found to not be specific enough to be verifiable.

The man appealed the IPO decision to the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT), which refused his action last February.

“The appellant’s substantial lack of knowledge as to a faith he states he embraced some nine years ago, and his lack of explanation as to why he does not have that knowledge, is a strong factor against the credibility of his account of a sincere conversion to the Jehovah's Witness faith.

"Accordingly, on the balance of probabilities, the tribunal rejects the appellant’s assertion that he has converted to the Jehovah's Witness religion,” said IPAT.

In seeking judicial review at the High Court, he advanced several grounds for his legal challenge, including that IPAT erred in failing to consider material relevant to the treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Georgia and that IPAT took a “too literal” interpretation of the religion.

In her decision published today, Ms Justice Phelan refused permission to pursue a legal challenge against the IPAT decision, saying he had not met the threshold for judicial review.

“It seems to me that the complaints maintained are in the realm of ‘trivial’ and ‘tenuous’. Accordingly, I refuse leave in this case,” said Ms Justice Phelan.

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