CAT/C/21/D/91/1997
page 5
rejected by decision of 28 February 1997. This decision was delivered to the
author on 4 March 1997 and, at the same time, he was notified that he would
have to leave the Netherlands immediately.
4.4
On 5 March 1997 the author lodged an objection against the negative
decision and filed an appeal with the District Court. He also applied to the
President of the District Court for an interim injunction to prevent his
expulsion. This request was again refused, and the objection and appeal were
again declared to be ill-founded. Following his communication to the
Committee and the Committee’s request under rule 108, paragraph 9, of its
rules of procedure the author was released from custody on 11 November 1997
and his expulsion suspended.
4.5
The State party considers that the author has exhausted all domestic
remedies and, not being aware of any other grounds for inadmissibility, has no
objection to the admissibility of the communication.
4.6
As for the merits of the case, the State party argues that in the
proceedings that followed his first request for asylum the author stated that
he had previously lied about his nationality and that he was Algerian. He
explained that in 1989 he had fallen in love with the daughter of his school’s
headmaster. The latter did not accept the liaison and in the course of an
argument the author destroyed some property. As a result he was detained in a
youth detention centre for three months. After his release he went to France
but the French authorities deported him in 1990.
4.7
The author stated that he had been called up for military service
in 1992 but failed to comply because of a lung condition. As a result he was
arrested in 1993. His request for exemption on medical grounds was denied.
Three months later he deserted and stayed with a friend until he left for
Italy on 23 November 1993. He stayed in Italy for two and a half months
before travelling by train to the Netherlands.
4.8
In the additional grounds accompanying the objection of 4 April 1996 the
author stated that he in fact came from Tunisia where he had had problems with
the authorities because of his ties with a teacher who was a fundamentalist
and a supporter of the Al-Nahda party. He claimed that he had been arrested,
questioned and beaten on several occasions and accused of disseminating
fundamentalist pamphlets.
4.9
In the autumn of 1992, after having helped the teacher to escape to
Algeria, he was arrested and questioned for nine days concerning the latter’s
whereabouts. He also stated that he had been ill-treated: his feet were
beaten with a stick, breaking three of his toes, and he remained confined in a
chicken coop. When he reported back one month after his release he was
informed that he would be prosecuted and brought to trial.
4.10 He also stated that he had heard from his father that friends in similar
circumstances had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment and that he
himself had been sentenced to 15 months for desertion. The author expects to
be punished for his desertion when he returns to his country.