CAT/C/46/D/352/2008
them. The complainant declares that he used to dispose of the newspaper as soon as the
party members had left.
2.2
On 15 July 2000, the complainant was arrested, blindfolded, and brought to a police
station where he was beaten up and questioned about his connection with PKK. He was
released after one or two days. He was detained and taken to the police station several times
after that and was kept there, for another day or two.
2.3
In September 2000, the complainant was informed by one of the PKK members who
visited his shop of the arrest of another PKK member in possession of a list of PKK
supporters. The complainant’s name appeared on that list too. As a result, he and his wife
left for Istanbul. They borrowed from a friend a mountain house outside the city, where
they stayed for two years. The owner used to bring them food periodically from time to
time and they had planted vegetables in the garden. On 25 March 2001, their son was born.
2.4
In August 2002, the complainant’s brother visited them in Istanbul. He brought with
him the 2 October 2000 edition of the newspaper “Dogus”. The front page of the newspaper
carried an article about the complainant being searched by the police and included a picture
of him.
2.5
On 25 August 2002, the complainants left Turkey. They were smuggled into
Switzerland, where they applied for asylum on 2 September 2002. The complainant
explains that he was first heard on his asylum request on 9 September 2002, and he
presented the newspaper “Dogus” of 2 October 2000 in support of his case. According to
him, the Federal Office for Refugees (F.O.R.) sent the newspaper to the Swiss Embassy in
Ankara to have its authenticity verified. On 21 July 2003, the Embassy informed that,
according to their investigations, the copy of the newspaper was forged. The complainant
contends that the Embassy noted that it had contacted an employee of the newspaper, who
could not deliver a copy of the 2 October 2000 edition as the newspapers of the year 2000
were already archived; the person in question had however denied that the 2 October 2000
edition contained any report about the police ever having searched the complainant.
2.6
After being informed by the F.O.R. that the newspaper was considered to be false,
the complainant asked his father to send him a copy of the arrest warrant against him. His
father sent him the original arrest warrant, issued on 18 January 2005, by a criminal judge
in Gaziantep. The complainant notes that the F.O.R. also considered this document to be
forged, because it was not possible in general to get such document in an original form, and
because the stamp used was that of a prosecutor and not of a judge. The complainant notes
in addition, that according to the Swiss Embassy in Ankara, he was not wanted by the
police in Turkey, and there was no data about him in the police registers there.
2.7
Based on the lack of credibility of the complainant, the Swiss authorities also
dismissed medical reports, both by State and private doctors, which attested to the
complainant suffering P.T.S.D. as a consequence of the torture suffered, as well as a
certified court statement made by a P.K.K. member in Turkey, which designated the
complainant as a P.K.K. supporter. The complainant notes that the State party’s authorities
dismissed allegations of mistreatment against him and his wife, as they had not raised them
during their initial asylum hearings.
2.8
On 4 April 2008, the complainant requested the F.O.R. to revise its decision not to
grant him asylum, on the basis of new elements – i.e. the copy of the statement by the
P.K.K. member, designating him as a P.K.K. supporter, the authenticity of which was
certified by a Turkish lawyer in a letter. On 17 April 2008, the judge in charge of the
complainant’s case refused to grant legal assistance, and ordered the complainant to pay
2400 CHF as advance fees for the revision of the case. The judge pointed out, inter alia,
that the appeal appeared “Mutwillig”, i.e. somehow frivolous, with very limited chances of
success, and that the new elements – the statement of the P.K.K. member to the effect that
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