CAT/C/71/D/904/2018
1.3
In a note verbale dated 20 June 2019, the State party requested the Committee to lift
the interim measures. On 31 March 2020, the Committee, again acting through its Rapporteur
on new complaints and interim measures, denied the request of the State party to lift the
interim measures.
Facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant, a national of Ethiopia of Somali ethnicity who belongs to the
Ogaden clan, was born, according to the information received, in Buqdhabu, Aware, Ethiopia.
She is married to a man belonging to the same clan and they have seven children. She asserts
that her husband and other family members had been active in the Ogaden National
Liberation Front, a rebel group fighting for Somali rights in Somali Region, Ethiopia. As a
consequence of her close relatives’ activities within the Ogaden National Liberation Front,
she was presumed to have subscribed to the same political views.
2.2
In March 2015, several representatives of the Ethiopian Liyu Police visited the
complainant’s home to inquire as to her husband’s whereabouts. 1 As she did not know his
exact location and could only answer that her husband was away looking for lost camels, the
officials beat her. A few days later, the officials returned. The complainant and her brother,
who also held a position with the Ogaden National Liberation Front, were both severely
beaten and the complainant’s brother was shot several times. They were then taken to two
separate cars, and the complainant has not heard from her brother since this incident. She was
held in detention for approximately four months in a prison where she was subjected to severe
acts of torture. She was forced to watch videos of sexual abuse and rape and witnessed other
prisoners being tortured and raped while being threatened with the same treatment unless she
provided information about her husband. She was detained in inhumane conditions, without
water and sanitation, deprived of sleep, with insufficient food and drink and with no access
to health care. She also suffered other forms of physical assault, such as being kicked by
booted individuals, burned with a heated pipe, hit with electric cords on the feet, and confined
in a small container and exposed to extreme heat.
2.3
When her health condition severely deteriorated, the complainant was released after
the payment of a bribe by her aunt, on the condition that she return to prison as soon as her
health permitted. The aunt, without the knowledge of her husband, who held a high-ranking
government position, helped the complainant reach the capital and contact a human trafficker,
who assisted the complainant in fleeing the country.
2.4
The complainant applied for asylum in Sweden on 6 October 2015. The Swedish
Migration Agency rejected her application on 12 September 2017. It found that the
complainant’s oral account lacked details and reliability to such an extent that it could not
form the basis of the assessment of her alleged need for protection. In particular, the Swedish
Migration Agency found it peculiar that the complainant lacked knowledge of the Ogaden
National Liberation Front even though her close male relatives had been involved in the
activities of the organization. Furthermore, she could not answer whether the officials looking
for her husband were representatives of the police or of the military. She further provided
contradictory information regarding the circumstances of her and her brother’s apprehension.
2.5
This decision was appealed before the Migration Court, which rejected the appeal on
28 June 2018. In the court proceedings, the complainant claimed for the first time that she
had been subjected to torture and submitted a medical report issued by the Swedish Red Cross
Treatment Centre. The Migration Court did not accept the complainant’s explanations
regarding the discrepancies detected in her asylum account by the Swedish Migration Agency.
Even though the Migration Court accepted that she had been subjected to torture in the past,
the Court found, given the lack of credibility of her narrative, that it was not probable that
she would face a present risk of ill-treatment upon her return to Ethiopia. On 7 August 2018,
the Migration Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal and the decision to expel the
complainant became final.
1
2
The Ethiopian Liyu Police is a police unit established by the Ethiopian authorities in Somali Region
when the armed conflict between the Ogaden National Liberation Front and the Government
escalated in 2007.