A Sudanese asylum-seeker who was due to be deported yesterday is to remain in Britain after his lawyers made a last-minute appeal.

Mohammed Abdulhadi Ali — whose case was highlighted in The Times —and his backers feared that he faced torture if the Government pressed ahead with plans to fly him to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, yesterday afternoon.

The deportation was postponed pending an appeal by his lawyers made hours before the plane was due to fly Mr Ali, from Darfur, back to his home country.

The lawyers argued that the Government must take into account evidence from a deportee returned to Sudan a week ago who was tortured after his arrival by intelligence agents.

The Home Office had said that under present guidance it was considered safe to return to Khartoum individuals fleeing the violence in Darfur.

Mr Abdulhadi told The Times: “If I have to go, I will be killed the moment the plane lands. I am a Zarghawa. There is no future for me if I go back.

“Britain gave me the feeling I could be safe here. Now they are sending me to my death. Is this human rights?”

Campaigners have urged the Government to halt deportations of failed asylum-seekers to Sudan pending a Court of Appeal judgment which could rule that removing people to the African state is unsafe.

The Aegis Trust, a British-based charity that campaigns against genocide, has written to British Airways urging it to refuse to fly Mr Ali.

Hratche Koundarjian, of the trust, said that campaigners had been planning last-minute protests when the news came through.

He said: “This is an 11½hour stay of execution.”

David Brown, a spokesman for the trust, said: “We are very pleased. Obviously it is not over yet. He remains in detention and there could at some point be removal orders, but in any case it won’t be this side of the Court of Appeal decision. We are glad the Home Office has made the right decision.”

In an open letter sent to Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA, the trust said that the airline had a “reasonable excuse” in law to refuse to carry out the deportation.

It claimed that by sending Darfuris to Khartoum the Government was in breach of its international obligations.

The letter from James Smith, the chief executive of Aegis, added: “BA, therefore, must comply with international law and refuse to deport Abdulhadi and others in his position.”

He warned BA that if it allowed Mr Ali to be put on the flight it could be “tantamount to making the airline an accomplice” if he suffered or died as a result.

The trust said that a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese Government and its proxy Arab militias had seen 400,000 Darfuris murdered and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.

About 1,000 survivors from Darfur had managed to reach Britain, it said.

BA said that it was a matter for the Home Office, which refused to discuss the individual case, but insisted that no one would be returned if they were believed to be at risk.

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