CAT/C/71/D/790/2016 1.3 On 14 December 2018, pursuant to rule 115 (3) of its rules of procedure, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, denied the State party’s request for the admissibility of the communication to be examined separately from the merits (see also para. 4 below). Facts as submitted by the complainant 2.1 In 2010, a doctor treating the complainant’s mother for a malignant tumour introduced the complainant to Christianity, the gospel of Jesus and the omnipotence of God. That greatly impressed the complainant, who, together with her mother, decided to accept the gospel of Jesus for the healing of the mother. The operation forming part of that treatment was successful and convinced the complainant that God had saved her mother. She began to participate in meetings on the gospel and to preach, converting several family members. She was baptised in August 2010. 2.2 In June 2014, one of the complainant’s sisters in the church, L, was detained for 15 days, during which she was tortured and deprived of sleep and food. Following her release, L wrote to the complainant indicating that her husband blamed the complainant for L’s arrest and detention because of their close relation and that he would find her and report her to the police. L was questioned at a police station, but did not provide the complainant’s family home address. In June 2014, L’s husband took policemen to a residence used as a church in the village of N, which the complainant frequented. The policemen sought to arrest the complainant, but they did not find her. They threatened those present and told them to report the complainant, to whom they referred by her alias, and also told them that the Government reprimanded domestic churches, as well as those who preached, including the complainant. In fear of being arrested, the complainant went to stay with another sister in the church, C, whose residence she did not leave for four months. A brother and sister in the church then procured her a passport and a visa. On 25 March 2015, the complainant arrived in Switzerland on a valid Schengen visa. Three months later, she learned that L’s husband had testified that the complainant was a preacher. She also learned that police had visited her mother’s residence, where they had found pictures of the complainant and threatened her parents that those who preached the gospel were considered political criminals, that the State did not release them and that it was a crime to harbour criminals. 2.3 On 21 April 2015, the complainant applied for asylum in Switzerland. The State Secretariat for Migration rejected her application on 3 February 2016 on the grounds that her claims were particularly stereotypical, evasive and barely spontaneous, in addition to being contrary to all logic and the general experience. 2.4 The complainant appealed that decision on 7 March 2016, submitting testimony from a sister in the church, W, who confirmed that the son of L’s husband had obtained the complainant’s address and that the police had subsequently visited the complainant’s mother and told her that the complainant should surrender herself as soon as possible. By incidental ruling of 23 March 2016, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the complainant’s request for judicial assistance on the grounds that the reasons invoked appeared bound to fail from the outset. The complainant was unable to pay the presumed advance procedural fees of SwF 900. For that reason, the Court declared her appeal inadmissible on 20 April 2016. Complaint 3. The complainant affirms that she is unable to return to China, where she would risk being arrested and tortured. She also affirms that the Communist Party of China has intensified its efforts at the national level to arrest members of domestic churches, going door to door and promising rewards to stimulate reporting. She refers to sources indicating an escalation of persecutions of Christians in China. 1 She submits copies of her file under the asylum procedure, medical documents 2 (see also para. 6.5 below) and a letter dated 2 1 2 2 Dutch Refugee Council, “Update of 20 October 2016”; Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Chinese Communist Party readies crackdown on Christianity”, 8 October 2016; ChinaAid, “ChinaAid 2014 Annual Report indicates rising trend in persecution cases”, 21 April 2015. A medical certificate dated 3 October 2016 confirms that the complainant was hospitalized in Établissements Hospitaliers du Nord Vaudois from 30 September to 3 October 2016. She explained in

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