CCPR/C/117/D/2443/2014 4.5 The State party agrees with the Refugee Appeals Board’s assessment that the claim that the author had been contacted by the authorities because of her son’s situation did not in itself establish a basis for granting asylum to her, nor did her son’s situation, in itself, establish a basis for granting asylum. It observes in this respect that the author’s son left the country in February 2010, that the author was subsequently contacted by the authorities several times inquiring about the whereabouts of her son (but they did not abuse the author on those occasions) and that there is no basis for assuming that family members of persons connected to the Chechen rebels are usually pursued by the authorities. 7 The State party also finds that the author’s son was not a high-profile member of a Chechen rebel group, nor did he belong to a group of people who would be at a particularly high risk of being abused by the Chechen authorities should the author return to her home region. It observes that it appears from the author’s own statements in connection with the case that she moved to Ingushetia after her son’s departure because she was tired of being contacted by the authorities, that she then moved back to Chechnya because she preferred to go home and that she subsequently stayed there even though the authorities continued to ask her about her son. 4.6 As to the author’s alleged conflict with the authorities because of her sales of bread, the Refugee Appeals Board could not accept the author’s statement as fact. The Board emphasized in its assessment that the author had not been politically active, appeared to be a very low-profile individual and had had no previous problems with the authorities, except that she was contacted by the authorities as a result of her son’s conflict and except for the circumstances leading to her departure. It also found it less convincing that the author would attract the authorities’ attention merely because she sold bread to the rebels. The author’s statement about her escape from a hospital to which she had been taken after having been tortured and about having suffered a heart attack appeared to lack credibility. The State party observes in this respect that the author stated, regarding her arrest in November 2012, that the authorities came to her home one night and arrested her because she had been accused of providing rebels with bread. The police also argued that her son had helped the Chechen rebels and that she had probably also helped them. The author was detained in a prison for about a week, during which she was subjected to torture. The police told the author to confess to having baked bread and supplied it and other food items to rebels. The police said that she would not get out alive unless she signed what she was asked. She was not accused of doing anything other than selling bread to the rebels and helping them by getting items for them. The police told her that they would find and kill anyone who had helped the rebels. The author was beaten all over her body with a baton and was given electrical shocks. Wires were put on her fingers and, when the handle of the box was turned, she was given electrical shocks. She lost consciousness and woke up some time later in a hospital. A friend of the author’s niece, who worked at the hospital, told the author that she had had a heart attack and she helped the author get away from the guards at the hospital using an elevator. It was a large hospital and no one, not even the guards, saw them escape. The author was put in a taxi, which took her to Ingushetia, where her daughter and son-in-law lived. The author stayed in Ingushetia until 23 March 2013 and subsequently left the Russian Federation. At the time of submitting the communication, she 7 As regards the background information on the situation of family members of persons connected to the Chechen rebels, reference is made to the information on page 61 of Chechens in the Russian Federation: Residence Registration, Racially Motivated Violence and Fabricated Criminal Cases, a joint report of the Danish Immigration Service and the Danish Refugee Council dated August 2012 (document No. 260 on the list of background material on the Russian Federation available to the Refugee Appeals Board), from which it appears that particularly close male family members of persons connected to rebel groups risk attracting the attention of the Chechen authorities. 5