CAT/C/34/D/226/2003
Page 4
2.2
Before the Migration Board, the complainant stated that she became an active
member of the Jatiya Party in Bangladesh in 1994, and that her husband had been
active in the same party long before that. In 1996, she was appointed women’s
secretary in the local women’s association of the party in Mirpur Thana, where the
family lived. Her tasks were to inform people about the work done by the party, to
speak at meetings and to participate in demonstrations. In 1999, after the split of the
party, she and her husband remained in the faction led by Ershad.
2.3
On 7 September 1999, the police arrested the complainant in connection with
a demonstration in which a grenade was thrown. She was mistreated and suffered
injury to her toenail. She was released the next day. On 23 November 1999, members
of the Awami League mistreated both the complainant and her husband. They accused
him of the murder of one of the members of the League, which occurred during a
demonstration in which he had participated. Around 21 January 2000 someone left a
cut-off hand in front of their home. On 10 April 2000, other members of the League
vandalized their home while asking about the whereabouts of her husband, who had
by then gone into hiding. She reported the case to the police, who refused to
investigate the complaint when it was made clear to them that the perpetrators
belonged to the Awami League.
2.4
On 16 August 2000, the police, accompanied by members of Awami League,
arrested the complainant and her daughter at her parents’ home, where she had
moved. Her daughter, then 4 years old, was pushed so hard that she fell and injured
her forehead. The complainant was taken to the police station, accused of illegal arm
trading, and subjected to torture including rape, to make her confess the crime. She
was hit with a rifle belt, strung up upside down until she started to bleed from her
nose, stripped and burned with cigarette butts. Water was poured into her nose. She
then was raped and lost consciousness. She was released the next day, after her father
had paid a bribe to the police. She was forced to sign a document by which she
promised not to take part in any political activity and not to leave her town or the
country. After her release, the complainant was treated at a private clinic in
Bangladesh. After her arrival in Sweden she has been in contact with her relatives,
who had informed her that the Bangladeshi police had continued to search for her.