CAT/C/21/D/66/1997 page 2 Annex DECISION OF THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE UNDER ARTICLE 22 OF THE CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT - TWENTY-FIRST SESSION concerning Communication No. 66/1997 Submitted by: P.S.S. (name withheld) [represented by counsel] Alleged victim: The author State party: Canada Date of communication: 5 May 1997 The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Meeting on 13 November 1998, Adopts the following: Decision on admissibility 1. The author of the communication is P.S.S., an Indian citizen currently residing in Canada where he is seeking asylum. He claims that his forced return to India would constitute a violation by Canada of article 3 of the Convention against Torture. He is represented by counsel. Facts as presented by the author 2.1 P.S.S. was born in 1963 in Chandigarh, India. In 1982, he became a member of the All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF). On an unspecified date, P.S.S. and other men of that group were pointed out to hijack an aircraft, divert it to another country and hold a press conference in order to highlight the situation of the Sikh population in Punjab, India. The hijacking was planned in reaction to an assault by the Indian Government launched in June 1984 upon Darbar Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. On 5 July 1984, P.S.S. and the other men hijacked an Air India aircraft in Srinigar which carried about 250 passengers and diverted it to Lahore in Pakistan, where they held a press conference. Thereafter the hijackers released all the persons on board the aircraft and surrendered themselves to the Pakistani authorities. According to the author, with the exception of two minor injuries, no one was harmed or seriously injured in the course of the hijacking. 2.2 In January 1986 the author was convicted of hijacking and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court. In 1989, the death sentence was commuted to life

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