CAT/C/31/D/203/2002
Page 3
Facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
Counsel submits that, after the Iranian revolution in 1979, the complainant
became associated with a political party, the Fedayeen Khalg-Iran. He became active in
the organization whilst in secondary school. In January 1983 he was arrested on suspicion
of distributing illegal pamphlets and causing disorder, and was detained for 25 days.
During this time, he alleges that he was severely beaten. Upon release he was removed
from his school.
2.2
The complainant continued his political activities. These consisted of handing out
illegal pamphlets and attending illegal gatherings. He was arrested again in July 1983,
and brought before a Revolutionary Court, which sentenced him to two years
imprisonment. During his first two weeks in prison he was interrogated, tortured and
maltreated. He was twice taken out for a mock execution, for which he was blindfolded
and put against a wall, with shots being fired. He was then kept in solitary confinement
for a month and a half. At the end of his term of imprisonment, the complainant was
required to sign a statement that he would not engage in political activities, on pain of
death.
2.3
After his release, the complainant was required to carry out his military service,
during which time he claims he was discriminated against, in that he had to perform
dangerous tasks at the front. After completing his military service, he took up tertiary
studies at a private university, as he was not permitted to study at a regular university,
and then obtained employment. In 1989 he resumed his political activities with a group of
people associated with the Fedayeen-e-Khalg. The group distributed pamphlets and a
political periodical, wrote slogans on walls, and collected financial aid for families of
political detainees.
2.4
On the evening of 30 April 1994, the group distributed pamphlets and wrote
slogans in certain areas of Tehran. The following morning, the complainant noticed that
some of the slogans were unfinished, and learned that two members of the group had not
notified them that they had finished work. Fearing that the activities of his group had
been detected, the complainant fled Tehran. He later learned that officials had searched
his apartment and taken away his belongings, including illegal pamphlets and other
political material. He also learned that his father had been detained and interrogated by
officials, and released on condition that he keep the authorities informed about the
complainant’s whereabouts. The complainant fled Iran on 21 June 1994.
2.5
After arriving in the Netherlands, the complainant became involved in a number
of political activities, including co-founding an organization called Nabard, an
organization of Iranian refuges which comments on the human rights situation in Iran. He
was involved in writing and publishing reports for this group, although his name did not
appear in them. Nabard has close connections with a Fedayeen group in France, and
opposition groups in Iran. In 1996, the complainant was told by his brother, who had
obtained asylum in Sweden, that a letter from the complainant to his father had been
intercepted by the authorities, and that his father had been detained for not apprising the
authorities about receiving the letter.
2.6
On 14 July 1994 the complainant applied for asylum in the Netherlands. His
application was rejected by the State Secretary of the Department of Justice on 30 August