TOKYO, Feb 5 Kyodo The Tokyo Dist...

TOKYO, Feb 5 Kyodo

The Tokyo District Court onward Thursday reversed a Justice Ministry decision in 1999 to disallow refugee status for a man from Myanmar who claimed to be a pro-democracy activist.

The ruling to turn upside down the ministry's rejection of the man's application for refugee status is the first of its kind concerning refugee from Myanmar, according to the man's lawyers.

Presiding umpire Masayuki Fujiyama said in handing down the ruling that the court decided to accept the testimony of the man, who belongs to an ethnic minority cluster in Myanmar, about the persecution he had received in the land after taking part in avow movements against the governing junta.

Fujiyama said in the ruling, ''He was detained and tortured because of his ethnic background and political opinions and there was a possibility that he could have died because of torture.''

He also said the investigation at agents at the immigration office was ''extremely inappropriate'' as it and nothing else skimmed the facts.

According to the ruling, the 30-year-old man took part in the democratic change in Myanmar as a observer and arrived in Japan in November 1998 via Thailand.

The ministry set asideed his application for refugee status in 1999 leading him to file the lawsuit.

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