CCPR/C/133/D/2623/2015 Advance unedited version
Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on 19 August 1976.
The author is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 23 June 2015, pursuant to rule 94 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 deporting the author to Iran while his case was under consideration
by the Committee.1
The facts as presented by the author
2.1
The author claims that his family has a history of persecution in Iran because they are
Sufi and pro-monarchist. The author’s father has previously been arrested in Iran, his
maternal uncle was executed and other extended family members have fled the country and
obtained protection elsewhere. The author’s brother was executed in 2006. The brother had
socialist views and had spoken out against the regime.
2.2
The author was detained and mistreated for five days in Iran in 2002, for defending
his female cousin from Basij members. He also experienced other incidents of harassment
and coercion. He left Iran for Greece in 2005, where he submitted an application for asylum
but did not receive any information on the outcome. In Greece, he started attending church.
He also participated in a demonstration in front of the Iranian embassy in Athens in 2009, to
protest the Iranian post-election crackdown by the regime.
2.3
In 2012, the author was informed that his mother was suffering from severe depression
as she had not recovered from the execution of her son. The author was very concerned and
decided to visit her in Iran. He was arrested when he tried to renew his passport in Iran. He
was interrogated about his participation in the protest in front of the Iranian embassy in
Athens in 2009. He was told that the authorities had information that he had attended church
in Greece and demanded to know if he had converted to Christianity. He denied having
converted. The author believes that the authorities had obtained the information about him
from an informant in the Iranian refugee community in Athens.
2.4
The author was eventually released. He fled to Norway, where he had some relatives.
He applied for asylum but fearing that it would be denied, he tried to travel to Canada but
was stopped in Denmark, where he was detained for 70 days, after which he was returned to
Norway.
2.5
While in Norway, he became involved with a pro-monarchist group called ‘Ashty-e
Melli’. His application for asylum was denied by Norwegian immigration authorities in 2013.
The author travelled to Canada where he applied for asylum in January 2014. He met an
Iranian woman who had converted to Christianity and who read the Bible to him in Farsi,
which had a profound effect on him as it was the first time that Christianity was explained to
him in his own language. He started attending church and was baptized. He has become an
active and involved member of his church.
2.6
In May 2014, the author was injured in a car accident. He suffered neck and back
injuries and, as a result, the hearing on his asylum application was postponed to October 2014.
At the date of the hearing the author was in pain and had to seek treatment at the hospital. He
informed the interpreter, who in turn informed his counsel. His counsel also had some
ongoing health issues and was unable to attend the hearing. She informed the Immigration
and Refugee Board (IRB) and was told the hearing would be rescheduled and that the IRB
would call her to schedule the new hearing. However, in November 2014, the author and his
counsel received notice that the application had been declared abandoned by the IRB. The
author claims that the case was scheduled for an abandonment hearing without notice being
sent to the author or his counsel. The author’s request to re-open the application was denied,
without reasons, by the IRB in June 2015.
1
2
The communication was suspended from 27 April 2016 to 6 June 2018 due to a pending PRRA
application, and subsequent application for leave to appeal before the Federal Court.