CCPR/C/117/D/2443/2014
Federation. The author is represented by counsel. The Optional Protocol entered into force
for Denmark on 23 March 1976.
1.2
On 18 July 2014, pursuant to rules 92 and 97 of its rules of procedure, the
Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim
measures, requested the State party to refrain from removing the author to the Russian
Federation while her communication was under consideration by the Committee.
1.3
On 31 March 2015, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, denied the State party’s request to lift the interim
measures.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author is an ethnic Chechen. She has six children. Her oldest son was officially
considered a rebel, fled Chechnya and was granted asylum in Denmark on 28 May 2010. In
2010, the author’s other son also fled from home since he could not bear the authorities’
constant searches and interrogations. The author has not been in contact with him since
then. Two of the author’s daughters have left for Ingushetia. Her third daughter lives in
Germany, where she has obtained a residence permit, and her fourth daughter still lives in
Chechnya. In Chechnya, the author was baking and selling bread to supplement her
retirement benefits. Since her stand was close to a forest, the authorities believed that she
sold bread to the rebels and sympathized with them.
2.2
Since the author’s oldest son’s departure from Chechnya, the authorities have visited
the author’s house on many occasions inquiring about his whereabouts. In November 2012,
the author was detained for about a week because she was accused of supplying the rebels
with bread and on the grounds that her son had helped the rebels and she therefore had
probably also helped them. She was beaten with a baton and given electrical shocks through
wires on her fingers until she lost consciousness.1 She was taken to a hospital, where the
staff told her that she had suffered a heart attack, then subsequently escaped, aided by her
niece’s friend who was a nurse there. The author fled to Nazran, Ingushetia, and left about
two months later for Denmark. In Chechnya, the authorities continued to look for the
author, visiting and searching her house 4-5 times a month.
2.3
On 30 March 2013, the author entered Denmark without valid travel documents and
applied for asylum. She was interviewed by the police on 11 April 2013 and by the Danish
Immigration Service on 24 October 2013. On 25 November 2013, the Service rejected her
asylum claim on the ground that the explanation regarding her conflict with the authorities
lacked credibility and had been fabricated for the occasion.2 The Service found it unlikely
that she would have been tortured as a result of selling bread. It admitted that the author
could have been approached by the authorities owing to her son’s conflict with them but,
1
2
2
The author was not represented by a lawyer before the Danish Immigration Service. She did not
submit a medical certificate or similar documentation. In March 2014, however, in her request that the
Danish Refugee Appeals Board reopen the asylum proceedings, she submitted a letter dated
5 February 2014 from the director of the “independent information analysis agency” Objective,
a Chechen non-governmental organization, confirming that the author’s daughter had sought
assistance from Objective in December 2012, following the author’s arrest and detention. It confirms
that the author was tortured by military personnel and hospitalized in the Ninth City Hospital and that
her daughter had arranged for the author’s departure from Chechnya. The organization also confirmed
that the Russian authorities were still searching for the author and her oldest son.
The author provided the Danish authorities with written consent to carry out a medical examination in
order to assess whether she was a victim of torture. The Danish authorities did not carry out such
examination.