CAT/C/60/D/677/2015
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
12 July 2017
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 677/2015*, **
Submitted by:
A.N.M. (represented by counsel, Helen Westlund)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Sweden
Date of complaint:
9 July 2014 (initial submission)
Date of decision:
5 May 2017
Subject matter:
Deportation to Afghanistan
Procedural issue:
Level of substantiation of the complaint
Substantive issues:
Risk of torture
Article of the Convention:
Article 3
1.1
The complainant is A.N.M., an Afghan national born on 30 September 19951 and
subject to a deportation order from Sweden to Afghanistan. He claims that his deportation
would constitute a violation by Sweden of his rights under article 3 of the Convention. The
complainant is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 1 May 2015, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints
and interim measures, decided to issue a request for interim measures under rule 114 (1) of
the Committee’s rules of procedure and requested the State party not to deport the
complainant to Afghanistan while the complaint was being considered by the Committee.
Factual background
2.1
The complainant is a Shia Muslim of Hazare ethnicity from Jangalak village in the
Afghan province of Ghazni. On an unspecified date, as he was bringing apples to be sold at
the market in Kabul with his father, the complainant was approached by a Farsi-speaking
Iranian man, who offered him a job. The job was to distribute secretly 12 pamphlets, each
containing about 70 pages of the Bible, and nine DVDs, also with biblical content, among
his acquaintances, which the complainant agreed to do. The complainant distributed all the
pamphlets and DVDs within one day. He then contacted the Iranian man to obtain more
copies, and he travelled to Kabul to collect the material. However, as his activity became
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixtieth session (18 April-12 May 2017).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the consideration of the present
1
communication: Essadia Belmir, Alessio Bruni, Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller
Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu and Kening Zhang.
This is the date provided by the complainant, which differs from the date on his Afghan identity
document (see para. 2.3 below).
GE.17-11696(E)