CEDAW/C/55/D/35/2011 2.7 The author submits that she remained in Rwanda for one month but, knowing that she would be unable to find employment and fearing for her security, she decided to go to Denmark. E. C. informed the author that she knew someone who could help her to get there in exchange for $6,000. The author telephoned one of her husband’s friends and asked him to provide her with money and a new identity card, given that she had not taken her previous card with her. The author suggested to her husband’s friend that he should buy her husband’s boat so that she could pay for her new card and her trip. He did so and the author was able to pay the required sum and go to Denmark. She arrived there on 22 August 2010 and applied for asylum on the same day. 2.8 The author submits that, to support her application, she invoked her fear of being killed or imprisoned by the Burundian authorities owing to her political affiliation. She added that, just before the elections, in April 2010, she and her husband had received anonymous threatening letters in which her husband had been asked to leave FNL if he did not want his wife to be killed. The author also submitted that a grenade had been thrown at their house in May 2010. 2.9 The author claims that her sister, who stayed in Burundi, also told her that FNL members had been killed or imprisoned and that the author’s former neighbours, who were members of CNDD, had promised to kill her if she came home. Moreover, her sister informed her that Maman Oredi and her son had been arrested and that the cousin of the author’s husband, N. S., also a member of FNL, had been killed on 29 March 2011. 2.10 The author submits that, on 28 April 2011, the State party’s Immigration Service rejected her asylum application and forwarded her case to the Refugee Appeals Board. The Immigration Service considered that the author’s allegations, according to which the Burundian authorities had learned that she was a member of FNL owing to her husband’s membership of the party, were not credible. The Immigration Service underlined the fact that the author’s identity card made no mention that she was married. 3 The authorities could not have known, therefore, of her marriage to a member of FNL. The Immigration Service added that it was unlikely that her husband’s affiliation to FNL was known by non-members. Moreover, the author’s participation in the attempt to prevent the arrest of the leader of FNL could not have been sufficient for her to be singled out as a member of the party within the massive crowd gathered. Thus, for the Immigration Service, the author’s allegations rested only upon her allegation that, on 13 July 2010, having escaped from her village, police officers had come to arrest her and her husband, without indicating why they were searching for them, nor how they had learned that the author had found refuge in Kibenga. The Immigration Service further stressed that the author’s allegations that she had been threatened and beaten a couple of times on her way from work could not be taken into account, given that she did not know the identity of her aggressors. Lastly, the Immigration Service gave no weight to her allegations that she had been raped by three men. The Immigration Service took note that the author had said that her aggressors had not chosen her for any particular reason. The Immigration Service also emphasized that the author had been __________________ 3 4/20 The author was questioned about this fact by the Immigration Service. She explained that her new identity card stated that she was unmarried because it was a duplicate of her previous identity card that she had obtained before her wedding. Moreover, she attaches a marriage certificate to her communication. 13-43086