CCPR/C/120/D/2601/2015
the author to Iraq while his case is under consideration by the Committee. On 7 May, the
Board suspended the time limit for the author’s departure from Denmark until further notice,
in accordance with the Committee’s request. On 29 October, the State party requested the
lifting of interim measures as the author had failed to substantiate that it was probable that
he would be at risk of suffering irreparable harm if returned to Iraq. On 24 June 2016, the
Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim
measures, denied the request for the lifting of interim measures, recalling that the interim
measures remained in force.
The facts as presented by the author
2.1
The author was born in Baghdad to a Sunni Muslim family. He served three and a
half years’ military service under the Saddam Hussein regime. In 1978, he started his own
carpentry business in New Baghdad, but was called up again to perform military service,
which he did for five and a half years during the war between Iraq and the Islamic Republic
of Iran, from 1980 to 1985.2 Having seen many atrocities during his nine years of military
service, the author avoided a third call-up in 2000 to serve in Saddam Hussein’s “Jerusalem
Army”. He sold his business for less than it was worth, went into hiding and barely escaped
with his life. He claims to come from a prominent Sunni family, a fact he chose to hide
from the asylum authorities in Denmark for over 10 years to protect his relatives who still
live in Iraq.
2.2
On 4 March 2002, the author arrived in Denmark, without valid travel documents,
and applied for asylum on the same day. He was placed in a centre for asylum seekers. The
Danish Immigration Service rejected his asylum application on 29 January 2003. The
Service based its refusal on the assumption that the author would not suffer
disproportionate punishment for escaping the third call-up for military service because he
managed to stay in hiding in Baghdad for 12 months without being caught.
2.3
On 1 March 2004, the Board upheld this decision. Additionally, the Board argued
that the refusal to join the army implied no danger after the fall of the former regime in Iraq
in 2003, and that the author is a Sunni Muslim with a total of nine years of compulsory
military service on record, which was not in itself a sufficient reason for granting asylum.
The author has no family ties in Denmark.
2.4
A few days after receiving the negative decision of the Board, the author was
contacted by the Danish National Police to prepare for his removal, which he refused to do.
Consequently, the author could no longer receive the monetary subsidy and the two food
parcels per day he had been receiving as an asylum seeker every second week. In
September 2004, he was transferred to a different centre for asylum seekers and was
provided with three meals a day. He also had to present himself and sign in at the police
station twice a week.
2.5
On an unspecified date, the author submitted a request to reopen his asylum case on
the grounds that he and his family would be subject to persecution, which had further
increased during the civil war in Iraq from 2006 to 2008. On 10 March 2008, the Board
rejected his application. The author still feared returning to Iraq, including because he
comes from an allegedly prominent Sunni family, that his family is affiliated with the
Dulaimy tribe and the Baath Party, 3 and his fear of Shia militias. The author did not
disclose some of these elements to the Danish asylum authorities because of his anxiety
about his family’s safety.
2.6
By letter of 28 August 2012, the author’s counsel applied again to the Board to
request the reopening of the author’s asylum case. In the application, the author claimed
that he could not return to Iraq because he comes from a prominent Sunni family and the
area of his home was dominated by Shias inspired by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Between
2004 and 2006, the property of the author’s family was repeatedly attacked by military
vehicles and their house was searched. In 2006, the author’s siblings escaped to the Syrian
Arab Republic, where they were granted asylum by the Office of the United Nations High
2
3
2
The war lasted from 1980 to 1988.
The author’s sister B. was the head of the secretariat of the health minister until 2003.