The Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday the immediate release of an Iranian national who had spent approximately 24 years in Cyprus, ruling that his continued detention for deportation purposes had exceeded a “reasonable time” and was no longer justified because there was no realistic prospect of removing him from the country.

According to the judgment, the applicant entered the republic through the north in 2002 and later applied for asylum, claiming he faced danger in Iran.

His asylum application was rejected in 2004, after which authorities repeatedly issued detention and deportation orders over the following years without succeeding in deporting him.

The court also referred to criminal convictions involving burglary and theft linked to an electrical goods store in 2009, though it clarified that the proceedings concerned the legality of his immigration detention rather than past criminal offences.

The applicant had previously challenged his detention through an application in 2025 and was released after the court concluded at the time that “his continued detention is not justified.”

He was arrested again in January for illegal residence and detained under new deportation procedures.

During the latest proceedings, the applicant argued there was “no prospect of his deportation” and that authorities had failed to demonstrate due diligence in attempting to remove him from Cyprus.

The court accepted that argument, stating that the authorities had not explained what concrete steps were being taken to secure deportation despite the fact the applicant had remained in the republic for more than two decades.

“Indeed, today both sides stated that although the applicant has been in Cyprus for 24 years, he does not have a passport or travel documents,” the judgment said.

The state argued that the applicant’s refusal to cooperate with repatriation efforts justified continued detention.

The court rejected that position, ruling that “the refusal of repatriation does not remove from the competent authorities the obligation to act with diligence to achieve repatriation as soon as possible.”

The judgment stressed that “detention is a restriction of the constitutionally guaranteed right to liberty” and that deprivation of liberty “should be for the shortest possible duration.”

Concluding that the applicant was being detained “beyond reason” without any realistic prospect of deportation, the Supreme Court ordered the authorities “to immediately release the applicant.”