CAT/C/20/D/61/1996
page 3
2.3
From the English translations, provided by the State party, of the
decisions of the Immigration Board and the Appeals Board in the authors'
cases, it appears that X and Z attempted to enter Sweden from Germany on
14 December 1991 in the company of their brother and his wife, both of whom
are living in Sweden. X stated that he had travelled to Sweden on his
brother's passport, and his sister on the passport of her sister-in-law. They
had been imprisoned in Zaire from November 1990 to December 1991, when they
were helped to escape. As reason for his imprisonment X stated that he had
been involved in organizing a strike in November 1990. Z said that she had
helped her brother to hand out leaflets. The Immigration Board passed a
refusal-of-entry order with immediate effect, and the authors returned to
Germany the same day. The authors then requested asylum in Germany but did
not stay to await the outcome of their application. They returned to Sweden
on 6 June 1992 and on 13 August 1992 applied for asylum in Sweden. As reason
for leaving Germany, X stated that he was afraid and wanted to be with his
brother. Z stated that she wanted to be with her brother who was living in
Sweden, and also that asylum-seekers were not allowed to stay long in Germany.
2.4
As grounds for asylum, the authors explained that their father was
executed in 1978 after having been accused of involvement in a coup against
President Mobutu. X was section leader of the MPR's youth section during
1985-86. From 1986 to 1989 he was a member of the political police, then left
the MPR and became adviser to the deputy leader in eastern Kinshasa of the
PRP. He was active in the PRP from January to November 1990, conducting
propaganda and distributing leaflets together with his sister, who had become
a member of the PRP in May 1990. On 5 November 1990, his sister was arrested
at the market place for distributing leaflets. She was subjected to torture.
X was subsequently arrested, imprisoned and subjected to torture. On
11 December 1991, X and his sister were helped by a man they call Colonel, who
gave them new clothes and drove them to the airport. At the airport, they
were met by their elder sister, who gave them Nigerian passports and aeroplane
tickets. They flew to Frankfurt via Brussels and were met by the brother who
lives in Sweden. At the hearing of her refugee claim, Z presented two
statements from the Centre for Torture Survivors, concluding that she is
suffering from depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
2.5
Y entered Sweden on 24 March 1995 and applied for asylum. She could not
give any details about her husband's political activities. She stated that
when she returned from a visit to north-eastern Zaire, her husband had
disappeared and friends told her that he had been arrested. When looking for
her husband at the defence staff prison in 1992, she was detained and
imprisoned for two months. She was interrogated about her husband's political
activities and tortured. She managed to escape and went to stay with an aunt
in Bakavu, north-eastern Zaire. In June 1993, she received a letter from her
husband through a cousin in Belgium. In December 1994, her aunt's house was
searched and her husband's letter found. Y was returned to prison and
subjected to torture again. A friend arranged her escape on 21 March 1995.
She was given a passport in another person's name and left for Paris. There
she was met by someone who travelled to Sweden with her and then took her
travel documents.