CAT/C/66/D/749/2016
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
2 September 2019
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 749/2016*, **, ***
Communication submitted by:
X (represented by counsel, John Phillip Sweeney)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Australia
Date of complaint:
22 April 2016 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rule 115 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted to
the State party on 10 May 2016
Date of present decision:
3 May 2019
Subject matter:
Deportation to Sri Lanka
Procedural issues:
Lack of substantiation of claims; non-exhaustion
of domestic remedies
Substantive issues:
Risk to life and risk of torture or ill-treatment in
the event of deportation to country of origin
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainant is X, a national of Sri Lanka. His request for asylum was rejected
by Australia. He claims that his deportation to Sri Lanka would constitute a violation by
Australia of article 3 of the Convention. The complainant is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 10 May 2016, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints
and interim measures, rejected the complainant’s request for interim measures.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant was born in Sri Lanka. He worked in Saudi Arabia from 1993 to
2001. In 2001 he returned to Sri Lanka to work as a private gem trader. In 2003, the
complainant again departed Sri Lanka to work in Japan. He returned to Sri Lanka in 2006
to establish his own company and secured licences as a gem dealer in 2008, 2009, 2010 and
2011.
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-sixth session (23 April–17 May 2019).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu, Diego RodríguezPinzón, Sébastien Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Honghong Zhang.
*** An individual opinion by Committee member Abdelwahab Hani (dissenting) is annexed to the present
decision.
GE.19-14946 (E)
090919 190919