CAT/C/29/D/204/2002
page 5
The State party’s submission on the admissibility and merits of the complaint
4.1
By letter of 18 June 2002, the State party made its submission on the admissibility and
merits of the complaint. On admissibility, the State party contends that the complainant’s claim
that he is at risk of being tortured, upon return to Iran, lacks the minimum substantiation that
would render the complaint compatible with article 22 of the Convention.2
4.2
On the merits, the State party recalls that the existence of a consistent pattern of gross,
flagrant or mass violations of human rights in a country does not as such constitute sufficient
grounds for determining that a person would be in danger of being subjected to torture upon his
return to that country and the individual must show that he/she faces a foreseeable, real and
personal risk of being tortured. The State party argues that it follows from these principles that it
rests primarily with the complainant to collect and present evidence in support of his or her
account.
4.3
The State party argues that several provisions of the Aliens Act reflect the same rights in
article 3, paragraph 1 of the Convention. In this context, it states that the complainant’s case has
been assessed by the Migration Board in 1990 and 1994, by the Aliens Appeal Board in 1992
and by both the Migration Board and the Government in 2002. Moreover, the issue of
impediments to expulsion was assessed by two Swedish courts. It argues that the complainant’s
claim before the Committee that the issue of his protection was not brought up during the
criminal proceedings is untrue. On the issue of expulsion, the court took note of the fact that the
complainant had been living with a Swedish woman for four years, with whom he had had a
child born in November 1993. However, it found that the crimes for which he had been found
guilty were of the utmost severity as they were a danger both to individuals and to society at
large. Moreover, it found that these crimes were on a large scale and had been in progress for a
relatively long time. In an overall assessment, the court concluded that there were exceptional
grounds for the complainant’s expulsion. The District Court also based its view on an opinion
provided by the Migration Board indicating that there were no impediments to his expulsion.
4.4
The State party also confirms that in examining whether the Government should cancel
the expulsion order, it sought the opinion of the Migration Board and the Swedish Embassy in
Tehran. The Embassy submitted two sets of information but the State party claims that only one
set was submitted to the Committee by the complainant. According to the State party, the
Embassy provided the following information. Its overall view was that it was unlikely that the
complainant had been convicted in absentia. However, providing that the claim to have killed a
revolutionary guard was true, he could have been prosecuted either before one of the Islamic
revolutionary courts or before a public court. If sentenced before a public court the judgement
would have been served on him or his family. If heard in a revolutionary court he would have no
proof that any judgement was served on him. The prescribed sentence for having killed a guard
in Iran is the death penalty. Although the revolutionary court would probably not have
considered the circumstances of his case sufficiently mitigating to exclude such a sentence, if
heard in the public court he could have been successful with the argument that he acted in
self-defence. The incident in the park as described by the complainant was credible as similar
incidents had been reported to the Embassy. The Embassy could make a formal request to the