CAT/C/56/D/565/2013
Annex
Decision of the Committee against Torture under article 22 of the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (fifty-sixth session)
concerning
Communication No. 565/2013
Submitted by:
S.A.P. et al. (represented by counsel,
Mr. Marcel Zirngast)
Alleged victim:
S.A.P. et al.
State party:
Switzerland
Date of complaint:
11 November 2013 (initial submission)
The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Meeting on 25 November 2015,
Having concluded its consideration of complaint No. 565/2013, submitted to the
Committee against Torture by S.A.P. et al., under article 22 of the Convention,
Having taken into account all information made available to it by the complainants,
their counsel and the State party,
Adopts the following:
Decision under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention
1.1 The complainants are S.A.P., born on 11 February 1982, and V.P., born on 15
December 1981, both Russian citizens, and their two children aged 4 and 1 years, who
currently live in Ermatingen, Switzerland. They are facing a deportation order issued by
the Swiss Federal Office for Migration, and they maintain that their forced repatriation to
the Russian Federation would constitute a violation by Switzerland of a rticle 3 of the
Convention. The complainants are represented by counsel, Mr. Marcel Zirngast.
1.2 The complainants wish the Committee to ask the State party not to return them to
their country of origin and to grant them asylum, or temporary admission. Pur suant to
article 114 of its rules of procedure, on 13 November 2013, the Committee requested the
State Party not to deport the complainants to the Russian Federation while their
complaint was being considered. On 28 November 2013, the State party informed the
Committee that, in accordance with its established procedure, the Federal Office for
Migration had requested the competent authority not to take any steps to deport the
complainants. They were thus assured that they could stay in Switzerland while thei r
communication was being considered by the Committee and that the suspensive effect
would not be removed.
The facts as submitted by the complainants
2.1 The first complainant, S.A.P., is of Armenian descent and the daughter of an airline
pilot who was the victim of an aeroplane hijacking incident in 1985. Her father managed
2/10
GE.16-01900