The case concerns an applicant from Türkiye, of Kurdish origin and Zoroastrian religion, who applied for international protection in Belgium. The CGRS decided to exclude him from protection because there were serious reasons to believe that he was guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, on account of his support for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the CGRS considered to be a terrorist organisation. It therefore found that the applicant fell within Article 1F(c) of the Geneva Convention.

On appeal, after considering different sources of information on the nature, structure, activities and methods of the PKK, the Council for Alien Law Litigation (CALL) held that the acts committed by the organisation could not be qualified as terrorist acts. For this reason, the applicant could not be excluded from international protection on the basis relied on by the CGRS. However, the CALL added that another exclusion clause might still be applicable. It therefore annulled the decision and referred the case back to the CGRS for further assessment, in particular to examine whether the applicant could be held individually responsible for any war crimes committed by the PKK within the meaning of Article 1F(a) of the Geneva Convention.