CAT/C/35/D/250/2004
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to contact H. S., which used to be his alias in the Kurdish guerilla. An official of the
Migration Board, however, reported this statement as if he had truly visited Iran. On January
1998, his brother was questioned about his whereabouts and referred that he was traveling.
His brother never implied that he was visiting Iran. An employee of the Vaksala Population
Registry prepared a note in which the Registry required the complainant to inform the
Population Registry Office of his whereabouts before 4 February 1988. According to the
complainant, this note was never delivered to him. On 25 January 1988, the Swedish
Population Registry struck the complainant’s name from the list of residents. The purpose of
striking someone from the National Population Registry is to assure that from that day
onward the individual would not be allowed to enjoy the welfare and social benefits extended
to lega l residents. Since the Registry’s decision was never communicated to any other
Swedish authority, the complainant continued to receive welfare and social benefits.
5.5
On 17 March 1989, the complainant applied for a renewal of his refugee traveling
document, which was granted. He then opened two bank accounts and applied for a new
driving license. From 22 May 1991 to 30 December 1992, the complainant served prison
sentences in Germany and Denmark. On 30 December 1992, Denmark extradited him to
Sweden, in accordance with Sweden’s request. In the meantime, the Uppsala District Court
prepared to indict the complainant. On 14 January 1993, in a reply to a query from the
Uppsala District Prosecutor, the Migration Board stated that the complainant had obtained
refugee status on 29 June 1982 and had been domiciled in Sweden ever since. The note
added that nothing indicated that the complainant had ceased to be a refugee and that his
temporary travel outside Sweden had not affected his refugee status, concluding that
impediments against his expulsion existed. At the same time, the note added that the
complainant was said to have admitted, in a radio interview, that he had traveled to Iran.
5.6
Later in 1993, the Uppsala District Court sentenced the complainant to one year of
imprisonment and ordered his expulsion and a re-entry ban, based on the allegedly false
information provided by the Migration Board. The complainant states that the District Court
should have carried out an enquiry to determine whether there were any obstacles to ordering
his expulsion. The issue of the complainant’s alleged deletion from the Swedish Population
Registry was discussed at length at the court hearings. On appeal, the Svea Court of Appeal
accepted the complainant’s arguments, cancelled the expulsion order, but decided to increase
the complainant’s imprisonment from one to four years. The complainant realized that the
issuance of an expulsion order was essentially a “hidden trap” to unreasonably prolong the
period of imprisonment.
5.7
On 7 January 1997, the Uppsala District Prosecutor ordered his expulsion, relying on
false allegations that the complainant had voluntarily registered himself on 25 January 1988
as having emigrated to another country. The Court did not investigate whether there were any
impediments to the enforcement of an expulsion order. The court was also aware of its
judgment of 1993, which had been quashed by the Svea Court of Appeal. The complainant
argues that it is unlikely that the judges of the District Court had forgotten that the arguments
about the complainant’s alleged trip to Iran and his removal from the Swedish Population
Registry had been proven false in the 1993 proceedings. The court was not authorized to use
the same invalid arguments in support of the issuance of another expulsion order. The