CAT/C/53/D/470/2011 The facts as submitted by the complainant 2.1 The complainant was an accounting student at the Free University in Tehran. He helped organize demonstrations against the regime’s plans to build nuclear weapons and to attack Israel. After one such event, the Herrassat, the Office for Surveillance of Universities, warned him that he “talked too much”. He was accused of being a “counterrevolutionary”. In 2007, he was expelled from the university, allegedly for two failed examinations. He did not receive a formal decision to that effect. He claims that he had always been an excellent student and that the examination results had been forged with the aim of expelling him from the university. 2.2 Following the re-election of President Ahmadinejad in June 2009, the complainant participated in several demonstrations against him. On 27 December 2009, he participated in a protest march in Tehran. The police and Basij militia 1 dispersed the demonstrators. At around 1 p.m., the complainant was arrested by two Basij officers, handcuffed, and brought to a van, together with other demonstrators. His mobile phone and personal belongings were confiscated. The complainant and another demonstrator managed to escape from the van when the back door was open. Thanks to the complainant’s karate skills, they managed to overpower the two Basij officers and to disappear into the crowd. 2.3 After that incident, the complainant hid at his grandmother’s house. The very same day, officials searched his parents’ house and seized his laptop, passport, driving licence, military exemption and nationality certificates and a number of banned publications from a room he shared with his brother. The publications belonged to his brother. On 30 December 2009 and 3 January 2010, the house was searched again by officials, who told the complainant’s father that the complainant was to be prosecuted for “injuring an official on duty, possessing banned publications and fomenting unrest”. His father was also told that the complainant would be sentenced to death and that the penalty could be alleviated against a payment of 100 million toman. The complainant’s parents were compelled to provide the contact details of all their relatives. 2.4 On 3 January 2010, the complainant left his grandmother’s house for Zandjan province, where he stayed until 20 March 2010. In the meantime, a summons from the Revolutionary Tribunal, Chamber 7, was sent to his parents’ house in Tehran and an arrest warrant was issued. From 20 March 2010 to 10 August 2010, the complainant hid in Babol, Mazandaran province. On 12 August 2010, he left the Islamic Republic of Iran illegally by boat. 2.5 On 20 August 2010, he arrived in Switzerland and requested asylum. At asylum interviews, held on 6 and 23 September 2010, the complainant provided the Swiss authorities with his identity card, his karate certificate and the summons from the Revolutionary Tribunal. 2.6 On 27 October 2010, the Federal Office for Migration (BFM) rejected the complainant’s application on the grounds of lack of credibility and ordered his removal to the Islamic Republic of Iran. On 20 June 2011, the Federal Administrative Tribunal (“the administrative tribunal” (BVG)) rejected his appeal. 2.7 The administrative tribunal found that the complainant’s account was unrealistic, insufficiently detailed and inconsistent. First, it appeared incredible that he had first indicated that he had been held in the van for 10 minutes but had later stated that his detention had lasted almost 30 minutes. Furthermore, he had maintained that he had been 1 Paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who volunteer, often in exchange for official benefits. 3