CAT/C/58/D/607/2014
Factual background
2.1
The complainant is an ethnic Persian and a Shia Muslim from Teheran. He claims to
have been detained and tortured by the Iranian police in the 1980s for having assisted
persons with a travel ban, including non-Muslims and political opponents, in obtaining
passports. As a result, he fled the country and applied for asylum in Greece, where he
obtained refugee status in 1991. He was then resettled in Denmark as a quota refugee and
obtained a Danish residence permit under the Danish Aliens Act. He entered Denmark in
June 1992 with a valid residence permit. The complainant claims that he became addicted
to drugs around this time, due to the after effects of torture.
2.2
On 25 March 1995, the complainant was issued a permanent residence permit. On
4 December 2004, he left Denmark to return to the Islamic Republic of Iran with his
mother, who, after several years of having resided in Denmark, was ill and wanted to return
there. She died in the Islamic Republic of Iran in December 2009. The complainant stayed
in the Islamic Republic of Iran and, during the “green revolution” in 2009-2010, was
arrested, allegedly for having participated in post-electoral demonstrations against President
Ahmadinejad.
2.3
On 17 September 2010, the Danish immigration service decided that the
complainant’s residence permit had lapsed.1 This decision was upheld by the refugee
appeals board on 27 April 2011.2
2.4
On 8 August 2010, the complainant returned to Denmark, where his family was still
residing. However, on 27 April 2011, he was informed by the Danish authorities that his
residence permit had been withdrawn because it had lapsed. On 28 April 2011, the
complainant applied for asylum in Denmark. He claimed that he had been arrested in the
Islamic Republic of Iran in 2009 for having participated in a demonstration and had been
released the same day without having given his real name. He noted that, at another
demonstration, the police had marked with a pen all demonstrators in order to track them
and arrest them later. The authorities had put his name on a list and he had had to bribe
somebody to have his name deleted from the list and be issued a passport. His application
was rejected by the Danish immigration service on 6 December 2011.
2.5
On 6 September 2012, the refugee appeals board rejected the complainant’s request
for a new residence permit. The board considered that the complainant’s statements relating
to his arrest during a demonstration in 2009 had been implausible and inconsistent. It noted
that the complainant had stated before the Danish police that he had been detained and
tortured for two months, whereas before the Danish immigration service and the board he
had stated that he had never been imprisoned or tortured during his stay in the Islamic
Republic of Iran but just arrested for a few hours. The board further noted that the
complainant had stayed in the Islamic Republic of Iran for several years without
experiencing any problems with the authorities, other than this incident in 2009, and that he
was issued a passport and was able to enter and leave the country legally. The
complainant’s abuse of methadone or the general human rights situation in the Islamic
Republic of Iran could not lead to a different conclusion. The board concluded that the facts
of the case provided no basis for carrying out an examination for signs of torture.
1
2
2
Under section 17 (1) of the Danish Aliens Act, a residence permit lapses when an alien gives up
residence in Denmark or when an alien lives outside the country for over 12 consecutive months.
The refugee appeals board considered that the complainant had voluntarily given up his residence in
Denmark under section 17 (1) of the Danish Aliens Act, based on the fact that the author had returned
his apartment to the housing association and had sold his belongings.