CCPR/C/121/D/2419/2014
the author’s deportation from the State party until further notice, in compliance with the
Committee’s request.
1.3
On 28 January 2015, the Committee, acting through the Special Rapporteur, denied
the State party’s request to lift the interim measures request.
Factual background
2.1
The author was born in Taloqan in the Takhar Province of Afghanistan. He claims
that he is an ethic Qizilbash and that he professed a Muslim faith for several years. He
attended school for five years but has limited reading and writing skills. He further submits
that, in 1999, his father, who had been a medical doctor, was killed in Afghanistan by a
local commander named A.M.B. However, it was unclear whether the killing had been
intentional. As a result, he had to leave school and started working to provide for his
mother and brother.
2.2
The author worked as a car mechanic at a repair shop, where, on 1 September 2009,
A.M.B.’s driver came with the commander’s car. While the author was repairing the car, an
accident occurred that caused the driver’s death. Fearing that the incident would be
perceived as revenge for his father’s death, and fearing for his life, the author fled to Kabul
with his younger brother and stayed there with a cousin. The day after they arrived, the
author’s brother went to buy food and, according to witnesses, was kidnapped by unknown
persons. The author has not seen him since. The author therefore decided to travel to Herat,
Afghanistan, and then to the Islamic Republic of Iran, where he stayed for about two years.
He worked there in a shop in an area populated by Afghan refugees. During that period, he
was informed by an Afghan neighbour that the commander’s men were looking for him in
Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran and that they had visited his mother’s house.
2.3
The author decided to flee to Europe. He travelled through five countries and, in
December 2011, he entered Denmark and applied for asylum. He claimed that his life was
at risk in Afghanistan since, if he went back there, he would be persecuted by A.M.B.’s
men. The author was held at the Ellebaek institution for detained asylum seekers. 1
2.4
On 2 January and 20 March 2012, the Danish Immigration Service interviewed the
author concerning his asylum request. He stated that his father had died when he was
accidentally shot in an armed clash between the forces of two commanders. At the end of
the second interview, the author stated that he was prepared to change religion to avoid
returning to Afghanistan.2
2.5
On 30 March 2012, the Danish Immigration Service dismissed the author’s asylum
request. The author appealed the decision to the Refugee Appeals Board.
2.6
On 3 December 2012, the Refugee Appeals Board refused the author’s asylum claim
for lack of credibility. It noted that the author had not been a member of any political or
religious association, and had not been politically active. Furthermore, the Board pointed to
specific contradicting and inconsistent statements made by the author during the interviews
with the Danish Immigration Service and the Board concerning his father’s death, the
alleged incident with the commander’s driver, his brother’s disappearance and the attempts
by the commander’s men to look for him by visiting his relatives in Afghanistan. Notably,
the author stated during the Board hearings that his father had been killed in a clash
between the forces of two commanders and that, consequently, the death of A.M.B’s driver
could be perceived as an act of revenge by the author. When asked how he knew which of
the two sides had killed his father, he replied that people knew which side had shot whom.
Likewise, the Board noted that the author had replied evasively to its question about what
exactly had happened in the alleged accident at the repair shop. Against that background,
the Board considered that the author’s statements had seemed fabricated for the occasion.
1
2
2
The full title of the centre is the Ellebaek (formerly Sandholm) prison and probation establishment for
asylum seekers and others deprived of their liberty.
According to the summary of the Danish Immigration Service interview, as presented in the Refugee
Appeals Board decision dated 3 December 2012.