A Seoul court on Thursday granted refugee status to a Congolese man who broke out of a prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo after being sentenced to nearly two decades in jail for staging anti-government protests.
  

The Seoul Administrative Court said it has sided with the man, whose identity has been withheld, in a suit filed against the Seoul Immigration Office, which had denied him sanctuary on grounds that there were inconsistencies in his account.
   
In Thursday's ruling, however, the court said inconsistencies are natural in refugee cases, as most asylum seekers are unable to provide proper documentation.
  
"The man wouldn't have shown up at the immigration office if he had sneaked into South Korea to look for a job," the court said.
   
And considering the "dire human rights situation" in Congo and the fact that its regime had oppressed political dissidence around the 2011 presidential election, it is reasonable to believe that the man's fear of persecution in the African nation is well-founded, the court added.
   
A member of a Congolese opposition party, the man was arrested in 2011 for protesting state interference with his party's presidential campaign, court documents showed. 
  
He was subsequently tortured but released after being warned not to cause any more trouble.
  
In December of that year, however, the man was arrested again for violating a curfew when he held a rally on the day Joseph Kabila, the ruling party candidate, was sworn in as president.
   
He was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a ruling that took place in a jail and was not given reasons for the imprisonment.
   
Court documents said the man escaped the prison by bribing a guard with the help of an acquaintance.
   
The Seoul Immigration Office originally argued it was unlikely that a rank-and-file politician would be given such a heavy sentence, a claim refuted by the court.
  
"The South Korean standard of reason may differ from that of Congo, where the judiciary appears not to be independent from other branches of the government," the court said. (Yonhap)