CAT/C/31/D/213/2002
Page 4
then started kicking him, causing such injuries to his face and body that he had to be taken to a
hospital: he was threatened with death if he told what had happened. On his release, he reported
the facts to the prosecutor’s office in San Pedro de Montes de Oca and to the Public Prosecutor’s
Office in San José. He claims that his complaint was not examined.
2.8
Between 1992 and 1993, as a result of his participation in the defence of the rights of
Limón peasants who were under pressure to sell their land cheaply, the complainant alleges that
he was arrested in an operation coordinated by the national police and paramilitary groups
opposed to the peasants. He says that he was taken to Limón prison, put in a cell swimming in
urine and excrement, beaten and drenched with cold water. On his release, he found that his
house had been raided and his personal belongings destroyed.
2.9
The complainant claims that between 1994 and 1997 he was detained on more than 30
occasions and taken to court four times, accused, inter alia, of illegal possession of firearms,
manufacture of explosives, occupation of land, aggravated threats and attempted homicide.
2.10 He also says that his life and that of his partner, P. A. M., a female-to-male transsexual,
with whom he shared his political activities, was in danger. He says that their house was shot at
on several occasions and that although they asked for police protection their requests were
ignored. He asserts that they had to install a metal stockade in the living room of their house for
protection.
2.11 The complainant alleges that in 1995 there was an attempt to murder him: he received a
bullet wound to his left hand from an individual to whom a uniformed police officer had given a
gun.
2.12 On 17 May 1997, the complainant left Costa Rica for good. With P. A. M. he made for
Canada, where they applied for asylum. The Canadian Center for Victims of Torture took up
their case and gave them legal, linguistic, health-care and psychiatric support. The Canadian
authorities, however, refused their application for asylum.
2.13 On 12 July 2000, the complainant and P. A. M. fled to Sweden, where they immediately
applied for asylum. The Swedish authorities refused their application. The complainant says
that he is currently having to live clandestinely in Sweden in order not to be deported, since all
domestic remedies have been exhausted in the State party.
The complaint:
3.1
The complainant argues that his deportation would be a violation by Sweden of article 3
of the Convention, since he is in danger of being subjected to further torture in Costa Rica.
3.2
The complainant claims that the decision by the Swedish authorities was a mechanical
one, that it was biased, that the officials showed a lack of humanitarian interest and that they
considered only some parts of his statement and not the whole. He further argues that the
procedure was not objective since it took place in Swedish with only sporadic assistance from
untrained interpreters, which prevented him from understanding and responding to the decisions
taken concerning him in his own language.