CAT/C/65/D/801/2017
told the complainant that he should stop attending demonstrations as “he was working for
someone from the authorities”.
2.2
On 9 November 2010, the complainant attended another demonstration and was
again arrested. He was held at the police station in Yerevan for three days and was badly
beaten by the police. After his release, he stayed at home for two more days so that his
injuries would be less visible. However, his manager found out about the complainant’s
arrest and told him that he could only make it up to him by making false allegations against
his uncle, who was also an active member of the Republic party. The manager told the
complainant to make a statement alleging that his uncle was trading in illegal weapons, that
he had paid people to attend demonstrations and to vote for the Republic party. The
complainant refused and resigned from his job, but the manager told him that he had to stay
until the end of the month.
2.3
On 29 November 2010, the complainant was driving his manager home. After
having dropped him off at his home, the complainant was asked to pick up the manager’s
wife at the manager’s summer house. On the way there, a police car pulled the complainant
over. When the police searched the car they found a weapon. The complainant had not
known there was a weapon in the car. However, when questioned, the manager told the
police that the weapon was not his and that it probably belonged to the complainant. The
complainant was arrested on weapons charges and held in custody in Ashtarak for 40 days.
He was severely beaten every day with a police stick on his hands, fingers, stomach and
back. He was released on bail on 10 January 2011 on condition that he handed in his
passport, which he did.
2.4
The complainant’s uncle advised him to report his manager to the police for having
framed him on the weapons charges. On 13 January 2011, the complainant filed a
complaint against his manager with the police. On 15 January 2011, the complainant was
taken by his manager’s bodyguard to an unknown place. The manager was at the location,
he threw a paper at the complainant and told him to eat it. The paper was the complaint
against the manager that the complainant had filed with the police. The bodyguard
threatened the complainant with a gun and forced him to eat the paper. The complainant
was then held hostage for 15 or 16 days and beaten every day. At the end of January 2011,
he was brought to the police station in Yerevan and forced to withdraw his complaint
against the manager.
2.5
After the complainant had withdrawn his complaint, he was arrested for having
made a false statement to the police and was again beaten by police officers. On 2 February
2011, he was brought to the police station in Ashtarak because of the weapons charges
against him. He was again beaten by the police. His condition deteriorated and on 24
February 2011 he was taken to a hospital psychiatric ward. The police officers told the
doctors that he had tried to commit suicide, which was not true. The complainant was held
on the psychiatric ward for seven to eight days. On 4 March 2011, a doctor came to visit
him. He was a friend of his uncle and he helped the complainant to escape from the hospital.
His uncle advised the complainant that he should leave the country. On 24 April 2011, the
complainant left Armenia. He applied for asylum in the Netherlands on 16 June 2011.
2.6
The complainant notes that during the asylum proceedings the authorities found that
he had been admitted to a psychiatric ward in Ashtarak from 24 February to 3 March 2011
and that he had worked as a driver in a ministry office. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs provided the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service with further
information on the complainant’s asylum application. The authorities found that he was not
credible as they could not confirm that he had been held in police custody in Armenia and
because they could not confirm that there was an ongoing investigation against the
complainant. The Immigration and Naturalization Service therefore rejected his application
for asylum on 23 March 2012. The complainant’s subsequent application for judicial
review of the decision was rejected by the district court in The Hague on 10 January 2014
and his appeal against that decision was declared unfounded by the Administrative
Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State on 26 August 2014.
2.7
The complainant argues that the Armenian authorities would not admit to unlawful
acts and that they therefore would not confirm that he had been held in custody in 2010 and
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