Newark, April 24, 2008 – This week students from Seton Hall University School of Law's Center for Social Justice won two important asylum cases:

Students Justin Talley, Priya Vimalassary, Chana Anolick Hecht, and Christina Ryfa won asylum for a gay man from Iran in Newark’s Immigration Court. The client had been arrested and severely beaten on several occasions in Iran because of his sexual orientation. The immigration judge complimented the team, commenting that it was the best prepared and presented case he'd seen this year or by any student clinic. Assistant Professor Bryan Lonegan, who supervised the students’ work, remarked, “I am extremely grateful for, and proud of, the hard work these students put into the case.”

Students Jessica Vieira and Amita Nerurkar won asylum for a Turkish man who feared persecution based upon his past political activism and recent conversion to Christianity. The client, an ethnic Kurd and political activist, had been harassed for years by the police as a suspected terrorist because of his connections to pro-Kurdish groups. He fled Turkey several years ago, and while in the U.S., converted to Christianity. He is now an active missionary within the Turkish community in the U.S.

In recent years, however, Christian missionaries in Turkey have been denounced as anti-Turkish subversives and subjected to extreme violence and sometimes murder. Ms. Vieira and Ms. Nerurkar successfully convinced the Department of Homeland Security that because of their client's past political issues and the wave of anti-Christian missionary violence, the client was in danger of persecution should he return to Turkey. The grant of asylum will now allow the client's wife and two young daughters, whom he had to leave three years ago, to join him in the U.S. The client was represented last semester by Melanie Chandler and David Simon.

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Seton Hall University School of Law, New Jersey's only private law school and a leading law school in the New York metropolitan area, is dedicated to preparing students for the practice of law through excellence in scholarship and teaching with a strong focus on clinical education. The Center for Social Justice, a core of Seton Hall Law School's Catholic mission, provides clinical education and volunteer opportunities to students and engages in various forms of advocacy, scholarship and direct legal services in an effort to secure equality, civil rights and legal protection for individuals and communities in need. Seton Hall Law School is located in Newark. For more information visit http://law.shu.edu.