Expulsion in case of attempted home invasion robbery

Case no. 310/2016
Judgment delivered on 16 March 2017

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T

In the High Court, T had been given a consecutive prison sentence of seven years and eight months for attempted home invasion robbery and for violence of a particularly brutal and dangerous nature. The issue before the Supreme Court only concerned expulsion.

The conditions in the Danish Aliens Act were fulfilled, and T thus faced expulsion unless it would be in contravention of Denmark's international obligations. Consequently, the issue was whether expulsion would be in contravention of, among other things, Article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention on the right to respect for private and family life. This was to be decided based on a proportionality assessment according to the criteria laid down by the European Court of Human Rights in expulsion cases.

T was a now 27-year-old Turkish citizen. He was born and raised in Denmark and had lived here his entire life. This meant that there had to be compelling reasons for expelling T. He had previously been convicted for, among other things, deprivation of liberty, aggravated violence and threats, in which connection he was sentenced to suspended expulsion from Denmark twice. The crime at issue had been committed during the probation period of the suspended expulsion. T had no children, but his parents, paternal grandmother and siblings lived in Denmark. He had no education and only a limited attachment to the Danish labour market. He spoke and wrote Turkish and Kurdish, had family in Turkey and had visited Turkey about every three years.

Based on an overall assessment, the Supreme Court held that T could be expelled without violating Denmark's international obligations. The fact that T had married a Turkish citizen resident in Denmark after the High Court's judgment did not alter that assessment. T was thus expelled from Denmark with a permanent entry ban.

The High Court had reached the same conclusion.