CAT/C/68/D/826/2017
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant had been working as a school teacher in Turkey since 2010. After
several of his fellow teachers were arrested arbitrarily, he decided to leave Turkey with his
wife and young son1 in March 2016. They set up home in Casablanca in Morocco, where
the complainant started his own business. On 31 August 2016, he registered his company in
the commercial register.
2.2
On 27 July 2016, the prosecutor general of Balikesir province in Turkey opened an
investigation into the complainant for membership of a terrorist organization2 and financing
terrorism.
2.3
On 21 February 2017, the Turkish authorities filed a request for the complainant’s
extradition with the Moroccan authorities. On 28 March 2017, the complainant was
summoned to appear before Casablanca Court of First Instance, which ordered that he be
incarcerated pending extradition and that he be held in Salé prison until extradition
proceedings were initiated before the Court of Cassation.
2.4
At a hearing before the Court of Cassation of Morocco on 3 May 2017, the
complainant, with the assistance of his lawyers, denied the allegations contained in the case
file submitted by the Turkish authorities, which were unsubstantiated and based solely on
two detailed testimonies that were riddled with contradictions. The complainant argued that
there had been no surveillance, no questioning and no summons by or from the Turkish
authorities since 2004.3 He also argued that the extradition request was of a political nature,
in that it was based on the fact that he was a human rights activist who had adopted political
opinions at variance with those of the political regime in power in Turkey and on the
Turkish Government’s political characterization of the Fethullah terrorist
organization/Parallel State Structure as a terrorist group. He also invoked the danger to
which he would be exposed in Turkey given the general human rights situation prevailing
there, particularly after the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016, which was followed by a
massive wave of arrests, trials and convictions.
2.5
In a hearing on 10 May 2017, the complainant submitted a document dated 8 May
2017 which attested to an asylum application he had submitted to the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Rabat, 4 invoking his right to international
protection and in particular to non-refoulement, in accordance with articles 31, 32 and 33 of
the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and article 29 of Act No. 02-03 of 11
November 2003 on the admittance and residence of foreign nationals in the Kingdom of
Morocco and on illegal emigration and immigration.
2.6
On 10 May 2017, the Court of Cassation of Morocco ruled in favour of the
complainant’s extradition to Turkey.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant maintains that, if he is extradited to Turkey, he will be at risk of
being subjected to torture by the Turkish authorities, in violation of his rights under article
3 of the Convention.
3.2
On 20 July 2016, after the attempted coup d’état of 15 July 2016, Turkey declared a
state of emergency throughout the country. Since then, judges, journalists, lawyers and
academics face “arbitrary repression and a crushing of fundamental freedoms”. 5 The
political context in Turkey since the attempted coup makes it impossible to guarantee that
the procedural rules of a State based on the rule of law will be respected and is thus an
impediment to extradition in accordance with international standards. On 21 July 2016,
1
2
3
4
5
2
Born on 20 June 2013.
Fethullah terrorist organization/Parallel State Structure, a conservative Islamist movement composed
mainly of academic institutions.
He has no criminal record.
On 20 September 2017, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration informed the complainant’s wife
that she and her son had been granted asylum in Switzerland.
European Democratic Lawyers and European Magistrates for Democracy and Freedoms, “Le glas de
la démocratie ne cesse de sonner en Turquie” (The death knell of democracy continues to sound in
Turkey), joint press release, 25 March 2017.
GE.19-22197