CAT/C/63/D/703/2015
Factual background1
2.1
The complainants are from Khasavyurt, Dagestan. In 2007, I.U.K. began working as
a forester, cutting trees in the forest. He maintains that he has never sympathized with the
insurgents in Dagestan. R.R.K. worked as a primary school teacher in Khasavyurt from
2002 to 2011.
2.2
At the end of August 2013 while working in the forest, I.U.K. was approached by
three armed insurgents wearing green camouflage uniforms who threatened him into
helping them buy food and medication. The insurgents said that they had information about
where I.U.K. lived, about his spouse and his children. They also said that they had seen
I.U.K. in the forest several times and knew that he worked alone. I.U.K. was then told by
the insurgents that he and his family members could be killed “just like that” if he refused
to buy food and medication for them. One of the insurgents stood next to I.U.K. while one
of the others took a photo of I.U.K. with the insurgent, reportedly to document that I.U.K.
had contacts with the insurgents. Ultimately, I.U.K. accepted to help them because he was
scared. The insurgents gave him 10,000 roubles and two days later he left two bags with the
requested items in the previously agreed location. He did not tell his spouse about the
incident.
2.3
In late September 2013, while working in the forest, I.U.K heard shots being fired
around one to two kilometres away from his location. He became scared and decided to
leave the area but shortly thereafter his car was stopped by a group of between 10 and 12
armed persons in balaclavas wearing special military uniforms, which made I.U.K. believe
that they were representatives of the authorities from the special police force. They dragged
him out of his car at gunpoint, threw him to the ground and started beating him. A plastic
bag was then placed over I.U.K.’s head, he was forced into another car and driven away.
Inside the car, I.U.K. was kicked and beaten with fists and police batons.
2.4
When I.U.K. was allowed to leave the car and the bag was removed from his head,
he realized that he was in town and that he had been taken inside the police station through
an “extra station entrance” and not through the main entrance. I.U.K. was placed in a dark
cell in the basement, which was cold and did not have any windows. He was kicked in the
legs, so that he could not stand up. At some point, three persons entered the room and
started asking I.U.K. questions about the whereabouts of the insurgents. He was beaten on
the head and in the legs during the interrogations and had difficulty recalling for how long
he had been detained but he did not tell the interrogators anything about his encounter with
the insurgents. I.U.K. was placed on a chair during the interrogation. One of the persons
told I.U.K. in Russian that they would take a police baton, shove it up his rectum, record it
and show it to everybody. I.U.K. then stood up and tried to escape. He ran towards the wall,
hit his head against it and lost consciousness. When I.U.K. came round he realized that he
had been splashed with water, his entire body was in pain and he was bleeding. The
interrogators also reportedly tried to make I.U.K. regain consciousness with the help of a
sponge impregnated with ether. I.U.K. was detained for a total of 24 hours and interrogated
about five times during that period, each time with the use of force against him. He was
released on bail of 500,000 roubles paid by his male cousin and driven home by his male
cousins and uncles. Although I.U.K. was covered in bruises and it was obvious that he had
been beaten, he did not tell his spouse any details of what had happened to him, because in
his culture it was unusual to tell women about “such things” in detail. I.U.K. did not dare to
go to the hospital, because the hospital and the police “worked together”, but his neighbour
was a nurse and helped in treating him. He received treatment at home for a long time and
was unable to walk on his own and work.
2.5
On 9 November 2013, I.U.K. went on a fishing trip with his friend and two more
persons to celebrate his friend’s birthday. The next day, R.R.K. called that friend to say that
a group of five or six men in black uniforms with the insignia of the special police force,
1
2
The factual background has been reconstructed on the basis of the complainants’ own incomplete
account, reports on their asylum screening interviews of 8 January 2014 and their asylum interviews
of 2 June 2014, with the Danish Immigration Service, the decision of the Immigration Service of 30
June 2014, decisions of the Refugee Appeals Board of 21 October 2014 and 27 August 2015, as well
as other supporting documents available on file.