CAT/C/22/D/62/1996
page 3
south-eastern Turkey until October 1995. By then, the author’s superior
officer had committed suicide. The new commander held his subordinate
officers responsible for the incident and ordered two squadron commanders,
including the author, to be executed. The author states that he fled the unit
to escape arbitrary execution, and because he had come to doubt the PKK
ideology.
2.3
The author states that he first went into hiding in Istanbul but,
fearing persecution by both the PKK and the Turkish authorities, he managed to
obtain a false passport and to flee to Bulgaria, where he arrived in
November 1995. He spent two weeks in Bulgaria and then went to Romania.
After two months he attempted to go to Austria via Hungary, but was arrested
by Hungarian border police when trying to cross the border illegaly.
Subsequently, he applied for asylum.
2.4
On 3 March 1996, the Aliens Police Department of the Györ Border Guards
Directorate issued an expulsion order against the author. The execution of
the expulsion order was by the same decision suspended given the fact that the
author had applied for asylum.
2.5
On 3 July 1996, the Bicske local agency of the Office for Refugees and
Migration Affairs denied the author asylum, on the grounds that he had no
reason to fear discrimination or persecution by the Turkish authorities.
According to the Office, the author’s trial and detention and the feared
revenge of the PKK did not constitute persecution as defined in the 1951
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
2.6
The author submitted an appeal to the second instance of the Office for
Refugees and Migration Affairs which was rejected on 16 September 1996. In
its decision the Office referred to the exclusion clause in article 1,
section F, of the 1951 Convention and stated that, as a high-level officer of
a terrorist organization, the author was not entitled to protection as a
refugee. The author argues that the decision was based primarily on a
statement made by the Budapest Branch of UNHCR which did not attend
sufficiently to the case and delivered a summary opinion without having
interviewed the applicant or tried to know as much as possible about his case.
2.7
On 30 September 1996, the author lodged an application for review of the
administrative decision with the Pest Central District Court, on the grounds
that the Office for Refugees and Migration Affairs had, inter alia, not
proceeded with due care in the examination of the case and that it had not
taken into account article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On 10 October 1996, the
Pest Central District Court rejected the author’s request and found that the
administrative authorities had acted in accordance with existing procedural
regulations.
2.8
On 29 October 1996 the Aliens Police Department of the Györ Border
Guards Directorate annulled the pending expulsion order and the prohibition of
stay and entry into Hungary against the author on the grounds that the
decision ordering expulsion had been taken in violation of the existing
procedure, prior to a final decision regarding the author’s application for
asylum.