CAT/C/60/D/648/2015
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).2 The Department alleged that it had proof that
the complainant had provided financial support to LTTE. The complainant explained that
he had given money to the group because his family was threatened with harm if he did not
do so. The Department tried to force him to confess to being a member of LTTE, which he
refused to do. On 2 November 2006, the complainant was brought before the Chief
Magistrate’s Court and was held on remand in the Welikade prison. Along with several
others, he was charged with being a member of a terrorist group which had planned
destructive activities.3
2.3
The complainant’s parents submitted business registration and other documents and,
on an unspecified date, the court ordered the complainant’s release on the condition that he
report to the Criminal Investigation Department each month, for a period of six months.
The Department extended the reporting period beyond six months, threatening to detain the
complainant if he did not continue to report to them. At each visit, police officers forced
him to pay bribes. After the second six-month period had ended, the officer in charge of his
case insisted that he continue reporting, under threat of detention. He did not dare to
complain to higher authorities for fear of further persecution. Unable to bear this
harassment, the complainant sold his business and moved back to Kalmunai, where he
worked for his brother’s jewellery business.
2.4
On 7 July 2008, the complainant was abducted from his home in Kalmunai by the
Karuna group of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal, 4 a pro-Government group. He remained
in a camp for three months. The group pressured him to join its cause and ill-treated him
when he refused. 5 Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal said that it had proof that the
complainant had contributed to LTTE and that he had to join them or give them money.
When the complainant’s wife went to the police for help, she was told to provide them with
sexual favours if she wished her husband to be released. She later visited her husband at the
camp, accompanied by village elders. She was told by guards there not to go to the police
again. The complainant’s wife was also warned that if she revealed information about the
camp to others, her husband would be killed.
2.5
After three months in the camp, during which he was forced to perform hard manual
labour6 and was regularly beaten, the complainant escaped. He did not return home and
arranged for his identity papers to be brought to him, after which he went to Colombo and
obtained a passport through an agent. 7 He eventually arrived in Timor-Leste, by way of
Singapore and Malaysia, 8 in December 2008. The complainant was questioned by the
Timor-Leste authorities.9 The interpreter was a Sri Lankan policeman, and the complainant
still fears that this policeman reported him to Sri Lankan authorities. The complainant
worked in Timor-Leste illegally for seven months. Thereafter, he walked through the jungle
for eight hours to Kupang and then travelled to Jakarta by vehicle.
2.6
On 10 March 2010, he boarded a boat for Australia and arrived at Christmas Island
on 20 March. Upon arrival, the complainant learned that his parents had been visited by
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2
Alluding to different factions of LTTE, named after their respective leaders.
The complainant provided an excerpt of the court record, in English, which he says lists his name at
No. 15 in the list of suspects. The extract shows a similar name at No. 15, and the complainant
provides further documentation which he claims corroborates the fact that his name had been
misspelled on the charge sheet.
At first, the complainant stated that he was confused as to which faction of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai
Puligal was holding him: the Karuna faction, whose leader, Colonel Karuna, is a deputy minister in
the Government, or the Pillayan faction, whose leader is a presidential adviser. Later, he came to
know that it was the former, as someone known to be senior in the organization, Iniyabarathy, visited
the camp.
Further details are not provided.
Including digging bunkers and working in the kitchen.
It is not clear whether this is the same agent who had previously taken him to get an Australian visa.
On his first attempt, he was deported to Sri Lanka from Singapore. He claimed that he had passed
through customs without being remarked by the authorities because a friend had bribed customs
agents.
Dili was under United Nations control at that time.