CAT/C/31/D/0215/2002
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paragraph 1, of the Committee’s rules of procedure, not to deport the complainant to Colombia
while the complaint was under consideration by the Committee. The Committee indicated,
however, that this request could be reviewed taking into account new arguments submitted
by the State party or on the basis of guarantees and assurances furnished by the Colombian
authorities. The complainant was deported to Colombia on 23 July 2002. In its written
submission dated 30 October 2002, the State party reported that it had not been in a position to
comply with the Committee’s request, since the complainant’s deportation was already taking
place when the request for interim measures reached the Government.
The facts as submitted to the Committee
2.1
The complainant asserts that he was a member of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias
de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC) and of the United
Confederation of Workers (CUT). He maintains that he was arrested and tortured on several
occasions during the 1990s1 by officers of the Colombian police who, he alleges, beat him,
applied electric shocks to his genitals until he lost consciousness and placed plastic bags filled
with water on his head, covering his nose and mouth. He asserts that he escaped from prison
several times.
2.2
The complainant says that he succeeded in leaving Colombia on a false passport, since
he was wanted by the police, and arrived in Sweden under an identity other than his own
on 25 March 1998.
2.3
On 26 May 1998, the complainant applied for a permanent residence permit in Sweden
under the identity of Celimo Torres Romero. Subsequently, on 24 July 1998, he was arrested
under that name as a suspect in a drug-trafficking case. His true identity was revealed during the
police investigations.
2.4
On 24 September 1998, the Solletuna District Court sentenced the complainant to six
years’ imprisonment and expulsion from the territory of the State party, after finding him guilty
of a drug-trafficking offence,2 committed in Sweden. The complainant appealed to the Appeal
Court of Svea which, in a decision of 26 February 1999, rejected his application. He entered
prison that day and on 23 July 2002 was released on parole.
2.5
On 13 October 1998, the complainant applied for asylum under the identity of José Ángel
Grueso Vargas. On 25 March 1999 the Swedish Migration Board rejected his application, on the
grounds that he had applied for asylum only after being sentenced to deportation from Swedish
territory. The complainant appealed to the Swedish Aliens Appeals Board, but his appeal was
rejected in a decision of 20 November 2000.3
2.6
On 17 July 2002, the complainant lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human
Rights but withdrew it some days later.4