CAT/C/38/D/296/2006
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worked as a legal consultant. He also worked as assistant to the chief editor in the “Yeni
Musavat” newspaper.1
2.2 Shortly after his return to Azerbaijan from the Netherlands, the complainant was called
to appear at the offices of the Ministry of National Security, where he was kept in custody for
two days, accused of “high treason and espionage against the Azerbaijani government”. In
particular, he was accused of spreading information in Europe about serious human rights
violations in Azerbaijan. During the two days that he was in custody, he was allegedly beaten
by officials, as a result of which he developed kidney problems, from which he has continued
to suffer after his arrival in Sweden, and “black tumours”. He was released due to lack of
evidence. He attempted to file a complaint about the incident with the city prosecution office
but the officers there refused to register the complaint and told him to keep silent about the
incident and not to make any further trouble. The complainant states that he was expelled
from the Bar association in Azerbaijan on 24 December 2002 due to persecution by the
Ministry of National Security.
2.3 In the run-up to presidential elections which were held on 15 October 2003, the
complainant was actively involved in the election campaign on behalf of the leader of the
“Musavat” opposition party. On 2 July 2003, he was detained by three officers and led to a
police station, where the officers referred to the fact that his future wife was half Armenian,
and accused him of being a spy working for the Armenian government. The allegations
raised during his first period of detention were raised again. He was kept in custody from 2
to 4 July 2003. The mother of the complainant, who had witnessed his arrest, contacted the
complainant’s friends and colleagues, who called the ANS TV channel. As a result, several
journalists went to the police station and the incident was broadcast in local news. The
complainant was released from custody on the same evening of the said broadcast.
2.4 On 18 July 2003, the complainant celebrated his wedding. The same officers from the
Ministry of National Security disrupted the wedding celebrations, shouting through the
microphones, and one of them physically assaulted the complainant’s wife. That same day,
the complainant and his wife escaped Azerbaijan to the Dagestan autonomous republic of the
Russian Federation. His wife suffered trauma and internal bleeding as a result of the assault
and was operated on at Derbend city hospital in Dagestan. From Derbend city, the
complainant and his wife travelled to Moscow. On 9 August 2003, they left Russia and
arrived in Sweden three days later. Upon arrival in Sweden, on 12 August 2003, they applied
for asylum.
2.5 On 22 December 2004, their application for asylum was dismissed by the Migration
Board, which ordered that the complainant and his wife be expelled to their country of origin.
The decision of the Migration Board was appealed to the Aliens Appeals Board but the
appeal, which included a petition on behalf of the newborn child of the complainant and his
wife, was rejected on 28 November 2005. The Migration Board re-examined the case on its
own initiative under a new temporary law introduced on 15 November 2005 and concluded,
by decision dated 19 May 2006, that no resident visa should be granted on humanitarian
grounds.
1
The complainant notes that the chief editor was arrested and sentenced to 5 years
imprisonment in 2003.