CAT/C/71/D/874/2018
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
13 September 2021
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 874/2018*, **
Communication submitted by:
A.J.E. (represented by counsel, John Persson)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Sweden
Date of complaint:
19 April 2018 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rules 114 and 115 of
the Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted
to the State party on 5 June 2018 (not issued in
document form)
Date of adoption of decision:
22 July 2021
Subject matter:
Deportation to Afghanistan
Procedural issue:
Level of substantiation of claims
Substantive issue:
Risk of torture upon return to country of origin
(non-refoulement)
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainant is A.J.E., a national of Afghanistan born in 1990. He claims that his
deportation to Afghanistan by the State party would constitute a violation of his rights under
article 3 of the Convention. The State party has made the declaration pursuant to article 22
(1) of the Convention, effective from 8 April 1986. The complainant is represented by
counsel.
1.2
On 5 June 2018, pursuant to rule 114 of its rules of procedure, the Committee, acting
through its Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, asked the State party not to
expel the complainant while the complaint was being considered.
Factual background
2.1
The complainant was born a Muslim, and he sought asylum in Sweden in 2015. As of
the second quarter of 2016, he had started studying the Bible with the Jehovah’s Witnesses
and attending meetings twice per week. He also had weekly personal Bible study with one of
the members of the congregation. In March 2018, he was appointed an “unbaptized
* Adopted by the Committee at its seventy-first session (12–30 July 2021).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Claude Heller, Erdoğan İşcan, Liu Huawen, Ilvija Pūce, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón,
Sébastien Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Peter Vedel Kessing.
GE.21-12734(E)