CAT/C/47/D/312/2007
Annex
Decision of the Committee against Torture under article 22 of
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(forty-seventh session)
concerning
Communication No. 312/2007
Submitted by:
Hamid Reza Eftekhary
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Norway
Date of the complaint:
24 October 2006 (initial submission)
The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Meeting on 25 November 2011,
Having concluded its consideration of complaint No. 312/2007, submitted to the
Committee against Torture by Hamid Reza Eftekhary under article 22 of the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Having taken into account all information made available to it by the complainant,
his counsel and the State party,
Adopts the following:
Decision under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against
Torture
1.
The complainant is Hamid Reza Eftekhary, an Iranian national born in 1979, at risk
of deportation from Norway to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although in the initial
submission he invokes only rule 114 (previously rule 108) of the Committee’s rules of
procedure (CAT/C/3/Rev.5), the complainant’s arguments amount to a complaint that his
deportation to Iran would constitute a violation of article 3 of the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. As of
September 2008, he is unrepresented before the Committee.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant is a journalist who previously worked for the newspaper Asia in the
Islamic Republic of Iran. The newspaper was closed in the spring of 2003, allegedly for
having published “false information and for having conducted activities which disturb
people’s thinking”. In June/July 2003, the complainant was arrested and his house was
searched. During the search of his house, government officers confiscated documents and a
computer belonging to the complainant. During his arrest, the complainant was interrogated
by the authorities on the subject of his journalistic activities for approximately 14 hours.
2