CAT/C/48/D/393/2009
2.2
On 14 June 2005, the Federal Office for Migration rejected her asylum request and
ordered her to leave Switzerland. On 9 August 2007, the Federal Administrative Court
rejected her appeal on the basis that it was not well established that the complainant’s
political activities in Switzerland have exposed her to such an extent as to attract the
attention of the Ethiopian authorities.
2.3
While in Switzerland, the complainant continued her political work within the
Ethiopian diaspora. She became an active member of the diaspora opposition political
organization KINIJIT/Coalition of Unity and Democracy Party Switzerland (CUDP) and
participated in numerous demonstrations and political rallies. According to the author,
CUDP is one of Ethiopia’s leading opposition movements. In Ethiopia, CUDP regularly
faces political repression from the Government and its members continue to be persecuted.
The complainant gives the example of Birtukan Mideksa, chairperson of CUDP, who was
arrested on 28 December 2008 and convicted of attempting to overthrow the constitutional
order. She was sentenced to life imprisonment. About a month before her arrest, Ms.
Mideksa had visited the Swiss section of KINIJIT in Geneva. At that time, the complainant
met her personally and helped her to organize her meetings.
2.4
For many years, the complainant helped organize gatherings for her political
movement in Switzerland. Various pictures of her as part of crowds in demonstrations have
appeared in the media. Besides her activity with KINIJIT, the complainant joined the
Association des Ethiopiens de Suisse (AES), an important community and discussion forum
for the Ethiopian diaspora, that organizes cultural and political events. Since 2004, the
complainant has been a member of the executive committee. She further appeared in public
in an Ethiopian radio programme on a Swiss local radio station speaking in Amharic to her
fellow citizens.
2.5
On 5 October 2007, the complainant submitted a second asylum request based on
her recent political activities in Switzerland. The Federal Office for Migration forwarded
her request to the Federal Administrative Court, which considered it a revision request. The
Court rejected her request on 12 June 2009, for lack of evidence proving a real risk upon
return to Ethiopia, and ordered her expulsion.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant claims that her forcible deportation to Ethiopia by Switzerland
would amount to a violation of article 3 of the Convention because she risked being
arrested and tortured as a result of her political activities in Switzerland. The complainant
emphasizes that the Federal Administrative Court, in considering the merits of previous
asylum requests submitted by the Ethiopians active in KINIJIT, has acknowledged that the
Ethiopian security authorities monitors the activities of Ethiopians in exile and records
them it in an electronic database. The complainant adds that in a similar case, the Federal
Court had recognized that there was a high risk that Ethiopians living abroad, who were
active in or merely sympathizers of the CUDP, would be identified by the Ethiopian
authorities.1
3.2
The complainant submits that her activities go far beyond those of a passive
sympathizer. Indeed, not only does she participate regularly in political events, but she
publishes critical articles on the Internet and has become an important voice within the
Ethiopian diaspora. She has contacts with important opposition leaders, as indicated by her
1
Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland, unpublished judgement E-368/2009 of 12 February
2009.
3