A federal appeals court has halted the deportation of a Nepali man seeking political asylum in the United States in light of evidence that his wife was raped and assaulted by the same faction that attacked him in his homeland.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed an immigration appeals board’s denial of Yagendra Tilija’s bid to have his case reopened given the new evidence, and ordered fresh proceedings to determine if the level of alleged persecution he and his family faced in Nepal merited asylum.