CCPR/C/119/D/2593/2015
the State party to refrain from deporting the author to Malaysia while her case was under
consideration by the Committee.
Factual background
2.1
The author was born as a man and grew up in Seramban district, north of Kuala
Lumpur. She is ethnically Malay and a registered Muslim, but she considers herself Hindu.
At the age of 16, the author left her family and moved to Kuala Lumpur. She also started
wearing women’s clothing and receiving female hormone treatment. She worked at a
restaurant and volunteered for a local non-governmental organization. Her voluntary work
consisted of working in the streets to assist those living with HIV and transgender persons.
In 1998 or 1999, the author was raped by several unknown individuals.
2.2
In 2007, the author underwent gender reassignment surgery in Thailand. 1 However,
she continues to appear as a male on her Malaysian identity card since it is not possible for
the gender on the card to be changed. She also appears as a Muslim on her identity card.
2.3
Between 2001 and 2010, on several occasions after being stopped on the street and
having her identity card checked, the author was taken into custody by Malaysian police for
up to 24 hours and physically and sexually abused. 2 On one occasion, the author went to a
police station in Kuala Lumpur to report the rape, but the police refused to register her
complaint, after which she did not dare to report any further abuse.
2.4
According to the author, in April 2012,3 the police in Melaka took her to an office of
the Department of Islamic Affairs, where she was detained until the following day. Prior to
her release, photographs were taken of the tattoo on her hand, as it is not permitted for a
Muslim in Malaysia to have tattoos or to change religion. They also took her women’s
shoes, since it is forbidden for men to wear women’s clothing. Upon her release,
representatives of the Department of Islamic Affairs informed her that her case would be
sent for adjudication.
2.5
The author arrived in Denmark on 25 January 2014 4 and applied for asylum on 4
February 2014. Following three interviews with the Danish Immigration Service held on 24
February, 3 March and 16 April 2014, respectively, her asylum application was rejected on
28 August 2014. The Danish Immigration Service found the author’s account of her
detention and sexual abuse by the police in Malaysia to be inconsistent and implausible, in
particular in the light of the fact that the author had left Malaysia to travel to India,
Singapore and Thailand, and on more than 20 occasions for short periods of time. The
Danish Immigration Service also considered it implausible that the author had to wait until
January 2014 to leave Malaysia due to lack of funds as she had claimed, taking into
consideration her frequent overseas travel, including holidays in India in October 2013. The
Danish Immigration Service also noted that the author had not been charged with any
criminal offence and that she had not been detained between her last arrest in April 2012 5
and her departure in January 2014.
2.6
On 19 December 2014, the Refugee Appeals Board upheld the decision of the
Danish Immigration Service. The Board noted that, despite the threat by the Department of
Islamic Affairs that had allegedly been made in April 2012, there had been no follow-up to
any potential criminal proceedings against the author, and that until her departure in
January 2014, the author had travelled legally in and out of Malaysia on several occasions.
1
2
3
4
5
2
According to her statements to the Danish authorities, the author had lost contact with her family out
of fear that they would be ashamed of her, although she became closer to her family after her surgery
in 2007.
In her interviews with the Danish Immigration Service, the author stated that she had been stopped in
the streets between twenty and thirty times by the Malaysian police for identity checks between about
2001 and 2012.
In her communication to the Committee, the author stated that her detention in an office belonging to
the Department of Islamic Affairs had taken place in April 2012. However, in the proceedings before
the Danish authorities, she stated that it had taken place on 13 December 2012.
According to her statement to the Danish authorities, the author travelled to Amsterdam on 24
January 2014 and from there to Denmark.
See footnote 3 above.