CAT/C/54/D/476/2011 Staff of the Gambian National Army, Colonel Ndur Cham, ordered him to cut all the country’s lines of communication. Fearful of the potential consequences of refusal, the complainant acted as instructed. However, the coup attempt failed and the President of the Gambia announced that all those involved would be severely punished. A good number of them were very quickly arrested. 2.2 Fearing possible reprisals on the part of the Gambian authorities, the complainant chose to desert. On 23 March 2006, while preparing to leave the country, the complainant gave his passport, bank book and a power of attorney over his bank account to his brother so that the latter would be able to transfer money from the complainant’s account to his own account and the complainant would then be able to withdraw money overseas. On 27 March 2006, when the complainant’s brother was attempting to make the transfer, the bank clerk noticed that the account holder was a member of the Armed Forces and alerted the National Intelligence Agency, which immediately came to arrest the brother. The brother was beaten and interrogated about the complainant’s involvement in the coup attempt and his current whereabouts. The complainant’s passport was confiscated. On 12 April 2006, a military arrest warrant for absence without official leave (AWOL) was issued against the complainant on the grounds of desertion. 3 The complainant’s brother was detained until June 2007. 2.3 The complainant first found refuge in Senegal, where he remained until 12 April 2007. He then travelled to Switzerland, where he applied fo r asylum on 16 April 2007. On 26 April 2007 and 14 May 2007, the complainant was interviewed by the Swiss asylum authorities about the reasons for his asylum application and the circumstances of his flight from the Gambia. According to the complainant, bot h interviews were conducted in Wolof even though he had informed the Swiss authorities that his knowledge of this language was not good and that his mother tongue was Mandingo (Mandinka). 4 2.4 At the time of the asylum proceedings, the complainant submitte d his Gambian identity card, his military identification card and a certificate of basic military training. The Federal Office for Migration had the documents analysed in the laboratory of Zurich cantonal police, which concluded that the identity card and the military identification card had been tampered with. 5 The Federal Office for Migration therefore concluded that the documents were false. 6 2.5 The Federal Office for Migration also identified inconsistencies in the details provided by the complainant concerning the date of the Gambian President’s trip and the time at which the complainant apparently received the order from Colonel Ndur Cham to cut the lines of communication. The Federal Office for Migration has stated that, if the complainant were in real danger of being arrested or killed because of his involuntary involvement in the coup, after cutting the lines of communications, he would not have remained at the presidential palace until the morning of 22 March 2006, when the coup attempt had failed. Moreover, he would not have gone to the immigration office to obtain a new identity card following these events. According to __________________ 3 4 5 6 GE.15-11116 On 5 September 2011, the complainant provided a copy of the warrant and explained that it was a document entitled “AWOL” (absence without official leave), an expression used in the Gambian armed forces to refer to a soldier who left his post without permission, which was usually issued after 21 days of unauthorized absence. The document in question states that the complainant has been absent from his post since 23 March 2006 and that he should be apprehended and taken to the military police under escort to face appropriate disciplinary action. The official language of the Gambia is English. Wolof, Mandingo, Fula, Serer and Jola are nat ional languages. The photo on the identity card had been changed and the military identification card was forged. The State party submitted a copy of the certificate of military training with its observations on 6 March 2012. It considers the certificate to be authentic but to prove only that the complainant completed basic military training between September 2002 and January 2003. 3/8