CCPR/C/120/D/2601/2015
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They returned to Iraq in 2010. The author’s sister,
B., reportedly died under suspicious circumstances. She was probably murdered, only a
week after her return to Baghdad. 4 The remaining close relatives reportedly escaped to
Turkey in 2014, where UNHCR had been providing protection. The author feared in
particular Hakim Al-Zameli, a member of parliament who was a lieutenant in Saddam
Hussein’s army and then became one of the top leaders of the Shia El Mehdi militia. Mr.
Al-Zameli was allegedly in charge of reprisals and torture by Shias, which took place from
2006 to 2008 in a mosque which is only 100 metres from the author’s home. Shia militias
led by Mr. Al-Zameli reportedly completely dominated the author’s home town. 5 On 4
April 2014, the Board again rejected the author’s request for asylum and informed him that
if he did not leave Denmark voluntarily, he “might be forcibly deported”. Notwithstanding
the Board’s decision, the author did not leave the country.
2.7
The author claims that since April 2014, the situation in Iraq has further deteriorated
due to the uprising and atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL). The conquest by this group of several larger cities in northern Iraq has brought
about even more dangerous tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims. These tensions are
the central ground for the author’s refusal to go back to Iraq.
2.8
The author, who was 70 years old at the time of his initial complaint, has been living
in Denmark for 13 years, with the constant stress of possibly being returned to Iraq. He
lives in an asylum centre and does not have any income. He received meals only while he
had to report to the police twice a week, until 2014.
2.9
The author claims to have exhausted all available and effective domestic remedies,
as the decision of the Refugee Appeals Board of 4 April 2014 cannot be appealed. The
author has not submitted his communication to any other procedure of international
investigation or settlement.
The complaint
3.1
The author claims that by denying his request for asylum and his potential
deportation to Iraq, the State party would violate its obligations under articles 6, 7 and 14 of
the Covenant.
3.2
He claims that he would face a risk to his life and torture or cruel or degrading
treatment in Iraq because he is a former deserter from the military and a member of a
prominent Sunni family. Many members of his family had first fled to the Syrian Arab
Republic in 2006 and remained there until 2010. They then fled to Turkey in 2014, after
receiving threats from Shia militants. The author submits that the repeated threats, searches,
torture and executions of other Sunnis in the author’s home area provide sufficient grounds
to believe that his sister had not died naturally, but was killed after her return from the
Syrian Arab Republic. The area of his family’s home is allegedly under the control of the
Shia El Mehdi militia, led by the parliamentarian Hakim Al-Zameli, who formerly served
as a lieutenant in Saddam Hussein’s army. The author therefore fears that he will not be
able to leave the Baghdad airport alive,6 let alone return to his family’s home. He submits
that the Refugee Appeals Board disregarded the serious tensions between Sunni and Shia
Muslims in Iraq in its decisions not to grant him asylum in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2014.7
3.3
The author also submits that the tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims increased
with the ISIL uprising. Consequently, the author claims that he has a well-founded fear of
4
5
6
7
The information on file, however, indicates that, according to the Danish authorities, the author’s
sister died in hospital from stomach-related complications.
At the time of submission of the initial communication.
The author fears the risk on account of his real name, M.H.H.A.D., which indicates his membership
in the Dulaimy tribe. Since this tribe is allegedly perceived as dangerous, it attracts a risk of reprisals
by Shia Muslims.
The author refers to the following reports: Amnesty International, Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in
Iraq (London, 2014), index No. MDE 14/015/2014, p. 17; and the section on Iraq in Amnesty
International Report 2014/15: The State of the World’s Human Rights (London, 2015). The cleansing
of Sunni areas is also documented in Human Rights Watch, After Liberation came Destruction: Iraqi
Militias and the Aftermath of Amerli (18 March 2015).
3