CCPR/C/133/D/2510/2014 Advance unedited version
18 and 19 of the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on
23 March 1976. The author is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 17 December 2014, pursuant to rule 92 of its rules of procedure (now rule 94),1 the
Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures,
decided not to issue a request for interim measures.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author grew up in a monarchist family, but after having been flogged twice – for
sitting in a park with his girlfriend and for drinking alcohol – he wanted to work against the
regime. In 2006, he joined the Basij militia as a cover for distributing the alcohol he was
producing. At first, he was given small tasks, such as guarding a checkpoint. In addition, he was
a bodyguard2 for important individuals. He also participated in the 2009 election demonstrations,
but refused to beat the demonstrators, as instructed, and avoided to carry weapons or participate
in arrests because he knew about the treatment of detainees. In October 2013, he was ordered to
go to fight in Syria and received two weeks of military training. He did not want to go, so he fled
the Islamic Republic of Iran on 22 November 2013. The authorities subsequently searched the
home of the author’s parents and discovered the equipment for producing alcohol.
2.2
The author travelled by car from Tehran to Khoi in the North-Western part of the Islamic
Republic of Iran. He changed cars and drove to the border with Turkey, continuing his route to a
small village near Istanbul, where he stayed with an elderly lady for a month or a month and a
half. He was then taken by a lorry to Denmark and dropped off at a large roundabout. 3
2.3
The author entered Denmark on 15 January 2014 without valid travel documents and
applied for asylum the same day. He invoked his fear of conflicts with the Basij in case of return
because he had abandoned the Basij and left the country, and also because they discovered that
he produced and sold alcohol. He also feared being forced to shoot people for the Basij. On
22 May 2014, the Danish Immigration Service dismissed his application.
2.4
On 27 August 2014, the Refugee Appeals Board rejected the author’s appeal. While
accepting the author’s membership with Basij, it considered that this ground by itself could not
justify asylum. The majority of the Board members 4 did not accept as facts the author’s
statements on his activities for the Basij and on the circumstance that his home was searched after
his departure from the Islamic Republic of Iran because his statements on these points appeared
unlikely and fabricated for the occasion. The author also gave inconsistent and evasive statements
on several points such as to when he started selling alcohol or whether his family was aware of
his Basij membership. For the majority of the Board members, it lacked credibility that his family
had been unaware of his membership for seven years. The author’s statement that he was a lowranking member of the Basij was contrary to his statements about the tasks he carried out for the
Basij, including tasks entrusted to him by a high-ranking Basij member and acting as a bodyguard
for high-ranking individuals. In addition, the author gave inconsistent statements as to whether
he hit people with a baton during the 2009 demonstrations, on the scope of his own activities
during those demonstrations and on his previous knowledge of subjecting those arrested to
1
2
3
4
2
This is the rule under the Committee’s former rules of procedure (CCPR/C/3/Rev.10). The equivalent
provision under the current rules of procedure (CCPR/C/3/Rev.11) is rule 94.
He practiced boxing in his spare time.
This information is taken from an asylum registration report of 15 January 2014 by the South-East Jutland
Police. The author also declared that he had a brother who lives in Denmark for about 12 to 13 years and a
maternal uncle who lives in Denmark for about 30 years.
The decision does not mention the minority’s view.