CAT/C/70/D/743/2016
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
25 January 2021
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 743/2016*, **
Communication submitted by:
F.K. (represented by counsel, Niels-Erik Hansen)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Denmark
Date of complaint:
15 April 2016 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rules 114 and 115 of
the Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted to
the State party on 28 April 2016 (not issued in
document form)
Date of present decision:
30 December 2020
Subject matter:
Deportation from Denmark to Turkey
Procedural issues:
Another procedure of international investigation
or settlement; exhaustion of domestic remedies;
substantiation of the complaint; admissibility –
ratione materiae
Substantive issue:
Risk of torture and ill-treatment
Article of the Convention:
3
1.1
The complainant is F.K.,1 a national of Turkey born in 1990. His asylum application
in Denmark was rejected, and at the time of the initial submission he was in immigration
* Adopted by the Committee intersessionally on 30 December 2020.
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
1
Essadia Belmir, Claude Heller, Liu Huawen, Ilvija Pūce, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Sébastien Touzé
and Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov. Pursuant to rule 109, read in conjunction with rule 15, of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, and paragraph 10 of the guidelines on the independence and
impartiality of members of the human rights treaty bodies (the Addis Ababa guidelines), Jens Modvig
and Erdoğan İşcan did not participate in the examination of the communication.
It should be noted that the same complainant submitted a communication under article 22 of the
Convention against Denmark in 2013, registered as communication No. 580/2014. The Committee
adopted a decision on the merits on 23 November 2015 (CAT/C/56/D/580/2014). The Committee
considered, inter alia, that, by rejecting the complainant’s asylum application without ordering a
medical examination, the State party had failed to sufficiently investigate whether there were substantial
grounds for believing that the complainant would be in danger of being subjected to torture in Turkey.
As such, the Committee considered that, in the circumstances, the deportation of the complainant to
Turkey would constitute a violation of article 3 of the Convention. In addition, the Committee took the
view that the State party had violated the requirements of article 12, read in conjunction with article 16,
of the Convention, owing to the manner in which the Danish police had treated the complainant and the
subsequent lack of investigation.
GE.21-00908(E)