CAT/C/64/D/641/2014
2.6
On an unspecified date, the complainant talked to the chief of police in Abidjan
whom he knew. He was advised to leave Côte d’Ivoire if he did not want to be arrested, as
he was still being sought for his past political activities.
2.7
On 12 April 2012, the complainant left for Sweden through Ghana.9 He arrived in
Sweden on 20 April 2012 and applied for asylum the same day at Arlanda airport.
2.8
After the complainant left Côte d’Ivoire, his wife was visited by “authority
representatives” who were looking for him. They had wiretapped contacts between him and
his wife.10 On 21 August 2012, he was summoned to the police station in Abidjan on 22
August 2012. On an unspecified date, a poster with the complainant’s photograph was
displayed in police stations in Côte d’Ivoire. In November 2012, the complainant’s wife
was attacked by government forces in the area where they were living. On 3 September
2012, Italian television broadcast a documentary criticizing French involvement in the war
in Côte d’Ivoire. The complainant appeared in that documentary, which was filmed in Côte
d’Ivoire in January 2012, giving an interview in the street about economic issues in the
country. Several of the participants in the documentary were reportedly arrested and
accused of defaming the country. 11
2.9
On 18 December 2013, the Swedish Migration Agency rejected the complainant’s
application and decided to expel him to Côte d’Ivoire. It concluded that the complainant
had not plausibly demonstrated that he risked persecution constituting grounds for asylum,
or treatment constituting grounds for protection if he returned to Côte d’Ivoire. 12 The
decision of the Migration Agency was appealed to the Stockholm Administrative
(Migration) Court, which held an oral hearing in the case on 20 May 2014 and rejected the
appeal on 3 June 2014. On 10 September 2014, the Migration Court of Appeal refused
leave to appeal and the decision to expel the complainant became final and non-appealable.
The complainant subsequently claimed before the Migration Agency that there were
impediments to enforcement of the decision to expel him and requested a re-examination of
his case. The Migration Agency rejected his request on 19 November 2014.
2.10
The complainant submits that he has exhausted all available domestic remedies.
The complaint
3.
The complainant claims that his deportation to Côte d’Ivoire would constitute a
violation of article 3 of the Convention. He argues, in particular, that the militiamen who
arrested him in 2011 were now in the army and that the current Ivorian authorities had
accused the churches of caching weapons because they were supported by Laurent Gbagbo
and his wife. There is therefore a substantial risk that the complainant will be arrested on
political grounds and subjected to torture on his return to Côte d’Ivoire owing to the work
he did involving the wife of the country’s former President and his membership in the
Ivorian Popular Front. The complainant adds that some of his political friends, who
returned to Côte d’Ivoire from Ghana and other countries of asylum, have been arrested and
that torture is still common among persons who have been arrested for political reasons. 13
9
10
11
12
13
As transpires from the decision of the Migration Court of 3 June 2014, the complainant left Côte
d’Ivoire on 10 April 2012. He first travelled to the Russian Federation, where he received help in
obtaining a visa, but he only stayed in the Russian Federation for a few days and did not seek asylum
there because he felt the country was “racist”.
The complainant does not provide further details on the matter.
The complainant does not provide further details on the matter.
The Migration Agency noted, inter alia, that after the complainant’s release in 2011, he had stayed
with his godfather in Abidjan for one year without any problems. In addition, in January 2012, he left
Côte d’Ivoire via the airport in Abidjan and returned in February 2012 without provoking any
reaction from the Ivorian authorities. Thereafter, he again left Côte d’Ivoire in April 2012 legally,
using his own name, without attracting any attention. The Migration Agency also found that the
complainant had not plausibly demonstrated that his detention in 2011 was carried out and sanctioned
by the current regime, or that he was wanted by that regime, as claimed by him. There was therefore
no reason to assume that he would be at risk of being arrested again and subjected to similar treatment
to that he endured in 2011 on the grounds of his collaboration with Ms. Gbagbo.
The complainant does not provide further details on the matter.
3