No need to consider country of origin information where asylum claim found to be fundamentally lacking credibility

Judicial review – asylum and immigration – telescoped hearing – national from the Democratic Republic of Congo challenging the decision of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal to refuse her refugee status - claim to fear persecution from state agents in the DRC on the ground of political opinion – travelled abroad with her employer on business trips - employer began an affair with a general – general attempted a coup – she was arrested – claimed that she was using her trips abroad to drum up support – claimed that she was involved in the coup - detained for thirty-three days - raped, sexually abused and intimidated – managed to escape – refused asylum – adverse credibility grounds – argued that the Tribunal is obliged to consider objective country of origin information before reaching reasoned conclusions as regards the applicant’s general credibility - EU law interpretation – argued that the decision should be quashed for failure to comply with minimum standards as mandated by European law under the Qualification Directive – in the alternative she sought a reference to the European Court of Justice – whether having found her story to be wholly unbelievable, is the Tribunal obliged to consider country of origin information before refusing refugee status - conflict between judgments of the High Court - Rules of the Superior Courts governing the swearing of affidavits where the deponent does not understand English - no authoritative basis to believe that she understood the English language sufficiently well-enough to be able to swear a grounding affidavit in the English language - Court determined that more could have been done to ensure that her level of comprehension of the English language was correctly ascertained and brought in evidence to the Court – no need to consider country of origin information where the Tribunal determines that the applicant is fundamentally lacking in credibility - law in this area is clear and established.