The applicant was recognised as refugee on 6 October 2006 by the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons and on 29 September 2017 this protection was withdrawn on the basis of article 55/3/1 section 1 of the Law of 15 December 1980. Appeals lodged by the applicant were dismissed and he finally appealed against the decision of 11 December 2019 by which the Council for Aliens Law Litigation had confirmed the decision of the CGRS. The applicant argued that there was a discriminatory policy to treat differently persons who fall under article 49 section 2 of the Law of 15 December 1980, which provides that refugee status can only be withdrawn during a period of 10 years from the date on which the application for asylum and the persons such as the applicant, whose refugee status may be withdrawn from anytime on the basis of Article 55/3/1(1).

The Council of State held that the duty to provide a reasoning in its judgments imposes on the CALL the obligation to respond sufficiently to the arguments of the parties and make it possible to understand the outcome in a judgment. The Council of State sent back the case for reconsideration to the CALL, as it found that the CALL did not substantiate properly the reasons which justify the 10 year time-limit for withdrawing international protection based on one ground mentioned in the law, while there is no time-limit on withdrawing protection on other grounds.