CAT/C/29/D/204/2002
page 3
1.2. On 8 April 2002, the Committee forwarded the complaint to the State party for comments
and requested, under Rule 108, paragraph 1 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, not to return
the complainant to Iran while his petition was under consideration by the Committee. The State
party acceded to this request.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
While living in Iran, the complainant belonged to and worked for the political
organization Cherikhaj Fadai Schalg. The complainant alleges that he was arrested several times
between 1983 and 1988 as a suspect for illegal political activities. In or around September 1989,
he alleges that he accidentally killed a revolutionary guard in the following circumstances. The
complainant was having a relationship with a girl of Armenian origin. On taking a walk together
in a park in central Tehran, they met a group of revolutionary guards. These guards “interfered”
with the complainant and his girlfriend because she wore a Christian cross around her neck. The
guards threw acid at his girlfriend’s face. When one of the guards threatened the complainant
with a knife, the complainant managed to grab the knife and stab the guard. He and his
girlfriend then fled.
2.2
After this incident, the complainant hid at different places around Tehran. During this
period in hiding, he was informed that the guard had died from his wounds and that his girlfriend
had committed suicide. He was also informed that some of his relatives’ houses had been
searched. On 26 October 1989, the complainant succeeded in leaving Iran illegally and arrived
in Sweden, where he applied for asylum to the National Immigration Board (now Migration
Board and hereinafter referred to as such). On 17 September 1990, the Migration Board rejected
the complainant’s application as he had given contradictory information about his political
activities. The complainant appealed his decision to the Aliens Appeals Board which rejected
his application for similar reasons and refused to grant him refugee status. He was later granted
a residence permit on the basis of a general amnesty for asylum applicants.
2.3
According to the complainant, his mother was murdered in 1996. In his view, it is likely
that the murder was a consequence of his actions. One of his brothers, committed suicide in
1996 and another brother was killed in 2000. His two other brothers fled Iran and were granted
asylum in Canada. The complainant also alleges that he received oral information that he has
been sentenced to death in Iran. A representative of the Revolutionary Guard had told the
complainant´s mother about the verdict before her death.
2.4
In 1994, the complainant was prosecuted for drug smuggling. He was sentenced
to 10 years’ imprisonment and ordered deported, as he was considered a danger to the public.
The complainant failed in his efforts to appeal his case to the Appellation Court for Middle
Sweden and then the Supreme Court. The complainant alleges that his need for protection was
not considered through this court procedure. The National Board of Corrections Institutions
reduced the complainant’s sentence so that he would be released on 8 March 2002.
2.5
On 10 January 2002, the complainant lodged an application with the Government arguing
that the Court’s decision to expel him from Sweden should be revoked as he had the same need
of protection as he had previously maintained in his claim to the Migration Board. In addition,
he claimed that the contradictions in the information he had supplied to the Migration Board