CCPR/C/117/D/2493/2014 author is represented by counsel. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on 23 March 1976. 1.2 On 9 December 2014, pursuant to rule 92 of its rules of procedure, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures, requested the State party not to deport the author to Somalia while his case was under consideration by the Committee. 1.3 On 8 October 2015, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures, denied the State party’s request for the interim measures request to be lifted. The facts as submitted by the author 2.1 The author belongs to the minority Ashraf clan and was born in Qoryooley, Somalia. The area in which Qoryooley is located has been attacked by Al-Shabaab for a long period of time. Even though Qoryooley was officially liberated from Al-Shabaab in March 2014, the author states that the attacks and violence still continue. 2.2. The author’s father owned several plots of land. One of the plots was taken from the father by another clan, the Habar Gidir, some 12 years before Al-Shabaab came to the area. In February 2011, Al-Shabaab invited the author’s father to pay a large amount of money in order not to be disturbed. When his father did not pay the amount, he was killed by AlShabaab. 2.3 On an unspecified date, members of Al-Shabaab contacted the author at his house and asked him to join the movement. The author told them that he could not because he had to help his mother. In total, he was contacted by Al-Shabaab twice, at his house and at his workplace, between February and October 2011. 2.4 In October 2011, the author’s brother was killed by Al-Shabaab shortly after returning from Mogadishu where he had spent several years. The brother was accused of being a traitor because he was new in town and refused “to follow them to their whereabouts”. He was considered to be a spy sent by the Government. Shortly after the death of the author’s brother, Al-Shabaab asked the author twice again to join the movement. The author reiterated that he had to help his mother, but as he would not be able to avoid being taken as a fighter for Al-Shabaab, in November 2011 he fled to Boosaaso in the Bari region. 2.5 In January 2013, he was accused of stealing money from a building in Boosaaso. The building owner who accused him was a member of the Majeerteen clan, the most powerful clan in Boosaaso. This clan has always been in conflict with the Ashraf clan. The author was imprisoned for about one year without ever being brought before a judge. While in prison, he was ill-treated by police, who accused him of being a terrorist on the basis of the clan he belonged to. He was hit and his leg was burned, and he was threatened with death if he did not acknowledge his membership in Al-Shabaab. 2.6 The author was released in December 2013 because his mother contacted a council of elders in Boosaaso who were not concerned with clan relations and who helped her to collect money for the author’s release. The author contacted his mother in February 2014 to tell her that he wanted to leave Somalia. His mother informed him that some friends had told her that Al-Shabaab was still looking for him. 2.7 The author arrived in Denmark on 22 March 2014 without valid travel identification documents. In March 2014, he applied for asylum in Denmark, but the application was rejected by the Danish Immigration Service on 27 May 2014 on the grounds that his story and claims lacked credibility. That decision was upheld by the Refugee Appeals Board, on 2

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