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