Advance unedited version CCPR/C/133/D/2510/2014
torture. Finally, the author gave inconsistent and evasive statements about his contact with the
family after his departure.
2.5
After the refusal of his application for asylum, the author was detained at the closed
Ellebæk Institution pending his removal from Denmark. 5 On 3 December 2014, the author
requested the Refugee Appeals Board to reopen the asylum proceedings. 6 He referred, inter alia,
to the fact that he has an angel and other symbols contrary to Islam’s teaching tattooed on his
body, 7 for which reason he feared persecution from the Iranian authorities. He invoked the
judgment delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in M.A. v. Switzerland.8
2.6
On 12 December 2014, the Refugee Appeals Board found no reason to reopen the asylum
proceedings. As to the author’s reference to his tattoos, the Board held that the circumstances of
his case are not comparable with the circumstances in M.A. v. Switzerland because the account
given by the applicant in the latter case was accepted as reliable.
2.7
On 20 April 2015, the author once again requested the Refugee Appeals Board to reopen
the asylum proceedings.9 He submitted, inter alia, that he was baptized on 16 April 2015 and thus
had a new sur place claim for protection. He feared persecution by the Iranian authorities because
he had left Islam to become a Christian. The author also contended that because of his tattoos –
an angel and other symbols contrary to the Islamic teachings – he cannot conceal from the Iranian
authorities that he had converted to Christianity.
2.8
On 12 May 2015, the Refugee Appeals Board decided to reopen the asylum proceedings
and conducted an oral hearing before a new panel. It also extended the time limit for the author’s
departure. The author produced a declaration of 7 June 2015 issued by a pastor at the Grønnevang
Church and at the Ellebæk Institution. According to the declaration, the author had been part of
a religious community for refugees and immigrants at the church of Grønnevang, most of whom
speak Farsi, in particular since his release from the Ellebæk Institution in May 2015. Various
Christian and other topics were taught in the community. The pastor stated that he had known the
author for the full period of ten months of his detention at the Ellebæk Institution, and that the
author participated devoutly and very actively in church services. Moreover, in a letter of
31 October 2014, the Bethania Church confirmed that the author attended church services there
on a regular basis until 12 October 2014.
2.9
At the Board hearings, the pastor declared that he was the one who had baptized the author,
who had participated in more than 20 to 30 hours of baptism classes, and that he had no doubt
that the author’s conversion was genuine. The author declared that while in the Islamic Republic
of Iran, he made donations to a Christian church in secret. He did not go to that church because
he was a Muslim and he would thus have been sentenced to death. As to his tattoos, the author
declared that he had not mentioned them to the Danish Immigration Service because he had
thought that they were of no importance to his asylum application. 10 Originally, his tattoos were
not intended as a Christian symbol, and the author was not a Christian when he arrived in
Denmark. However, after having seen the lifestyle and behaviour of Christians in his country of
origin, which had sparked his interest in Christianity, meeting people from his own age group in
Denmark who went to church had renewed his interest in Christianity.
5
6
7
8
9
10
From 22 October 2014 to 26 May 2015.
Represented by the same counsel as before the Committee.
He got his four tattoos – allegedly an angel on his arm, close to the shoulder, and the other tattoos on his
thigh, below his navel and on his chest – in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Photos of his tattoos on file.
European Court of Human Rights, M.A. v. Switzerland, no. 52589/13, 18 November 2014.
Represented by the same counsel as before the Committee.
He claimed that he did not mention them to his previous counsel either.
3