CCPR/C/121/D/2471/2014
7, 9, 17 and 18, read in conjunction with articles 6, 7, 14 (1) and (2) and article 23 of the
Covenant, if he is expelled to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Optional Protocol entered
into force for the State party on 30 September 1992. The author is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 27 October 2014, pursuant to rule 92 of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures,
decided to grant the author’s request for interim measures and requested the State party not
to deport him to the Islamic Republic of Iran pending consideration of the communication
by the Committee.
1.3
On 9 January 2015, the State party requested the Committee to consider the
admissibility of the communication separately from the merits. On 29 July 2016, the
Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures, acting on behalf of the
Committee, denied the State party’s request.
Factual background
2.1
The author arrived in Belarus in 1993 and shortly after that met his future wife,
Elena Jamshidian, with whom he had three children (born in 1994, 1997 and 1999). The
author resided in Belarus without proper registration until 2005 and was subjected to
administrative sanctions in that regard in 1999 and 2002. Between 2005 and 2009, he
served a prison sentence in Belarus for fraud. On 21 September 2009, he was expelled to
the Islamic Republic of Iran. On 11 February 2011, the author and Elena Jamshidian were
married. The author’s five-year re-entry ban was reduced following a request by his wife
and he returned to Belarus on 6 November 2011. In April 2012, the author went to the
Islamic Republic of Iran to visit his sick mother and returned to Belarus in August 2012. In
October 2012 his uncle informed him that his mother and brother had gone missing. They
were later found killed in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
2.2
On 9 December 2012, the Iranian authorities issued an international arrest warrant
against the author for the murder of his mother and brother. On 28 December 2012, he was
arrested on the basis of an order issued by the Minsk Prosecutor’s Office and placed in
pretrial detention facility No. 1 until 9 February 2013. As a result of the Iranian authorities’
failure to request his extradition within 40 days, the author was released.
2.3
On 12 February 2013, the citizenship and registration unit of Zavodskoy District,
Minsk, issued a deportation order against the author, with a one-year re-entry ban, on the
grounds that he posed a threat to public order, morals and health and the rights and
freedoms of the citizens of Belarus. He was placed in a temporary detention facility in
Minsk pending deportation.
2.4
On 18 February 2013, a request for extradition was submitted by the Iranian
authorities and on 5 March 2013 the author was transferred to pretrial detention facility
No. 1 in Minsk pending extradition. On 3 May 2013, he was released due to the failure of
the Iranian authorities to provide the documents and guarantees requested by Belarus under
the extradition procedure.
2.5
On the same day, 3 May 2013, the author was detained by the citizenship and
registration unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the purpose of deportation and
placed in a temporary detention facility in Minsk. On 10 June 2013, he attempted to commit
suicide. He was treated at a psychiatric clinic from 10 to 17 June 2013, before being
discharged.
2.6
On 16 August 2013, the author lodged an application for asylum with the
Department of Citizenship and Migration in Minsk. His deportation was suspended pending
consideration of his application. The author indicated the following reasons for seeking
asylum: his conversion to Christianity in 2002, a capital offence in the Islamic Republic of
Iran; his family life in Belarus since arriving to the country in 1993; his brother’s
membership of a political opposition movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran; the fact
that he is accused of murdering his mother and brother, a crime which he did not commit
and which is punishable by death. He claimed to have been arrested at the airport of
Teheran in 2010 and interrogated regarding the whereabouts of his brother and his own
activities abroad. He was released because he had served in a missile unit from 1988 to
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