CAT/C/62/D/685/2015
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
9 January 2018
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 685/2015*, **
Communication submitted by:
H.I., L.I., S.I., A.I. (represented by counsel,
Judith Pieters)
Alleged victims:
The complainants
State party:
The Netherlands
Date of complaint:
23 February 2015
Date of present decision:
10 November 2017
Subject matter:
Deportation from the Netherlands to Armenia
Procedural issue:
Incompatibility with the Convention
Substantive issue:
Risk of torture and ill-treatment
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainants are H.I., born in 1970, his wife L.I., born in 1978, and their
children S.I. and A.I., born in 1998 and 2000 respectively, all citizens of Armenia. Their
applications for asylum have been rejected by the Netherlands. The complainants claim that
their deportation to Armenia would constitute a violation of their rights under article 3 of
the Convention. The complainants are represented by counsel.
1.2
On 5 June 2015, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints
and interim measures, informed the complainants that it had denied their request for the
provision of interim measures consisting of the issuance of a request to the State party to
refrain from removing them to Armenia pending the examination of their complaint.
The facts as presented by the complainants
2.1
H.I. started working in a garage owned by his cousin in the city of Abovyan in 2004.
Sometimes he also delivered cars to customers, as an additional service of the garage. On 3
March 2007, he had to pick up a car for a person called D.M. D.M. had previously worked
as a bodyguard for a former Armenian president. The complainants claim that it is widely
known that D.M. beat a man to death in 2002, but that he was only found guilty of
negligent manslaughter and sentenced to one year of probation for the crime. The
complainants argue that this demonstrates that D.M. has connections who are able to
influence the judiciary. While the male complainant was delivering the car, he was stopped
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-second session (6 November–6 December 2017).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Alessio Bruni, Felice Gaer, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu,
Sébastien Touzé and Kening Zhang.
GE.18-00323(E)