CAT/C/35/D/250/2004
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2.6
On 7 January 1997, the Uppsala District Court sentenced the complainant to one year
of imprisonment for his assistance and complicity in forgery of official documents and
ordered his expulsion. In ordering his deportation the District Court noted that the applicant
had been repeatedly convicted of document forgery both in Sweden and Denmark. The
complainant did not appeal this decision.
2.7
On 25 April 1997, an application was submitted to the Government to cancel the
expulsion order as there was a risk that the complainant would be subjected to torture or
death on return because, inter alia, of his involvement in smuggling dissident Iranians out of
Iran; his views expressed in the media against the Iranian regime; as well as the fact that no
investigation about his reasons for seeking asylum had been made since the early 1980s.
Moreover, the Swedish Embassy in Teheran reported an investigation in Iran, in which it was
stated that the complainant may be punished for activities aimed against national security of
the Islamic Republic of Iran and, “in the event that his contacts in Iran cannot protect him
from punishment, he probably risks prison sentence. Harsher punishment could not be ruled
out”.
2.8
On 3 July 1997, the government dismissed the application without giving reasons.
On the same day the case was submitted to the European Commission which dismissed the
complaint on admissibility grounds—i.e. the complainant’s failure to challenge the District
Court’s judgment of 7 January 1997. Subsequently, an extract from a book written by the
complainant was published, in which he argued that religions are the cause of conflict. In his
view, this may be taken as criticism directed against the Iranian government. On this basis, a
further request was made to the government on 7 July 1997 to cancel the expulsion order;
this was rejected.
2.9
On 7 January 2002, the complainant was sentenced by the Court of Appeal of
Western Sweden, inter alia, for receiving stolen goods. He was scheduled to be released on
19 June 2004. Thereafter, he was scheduled to be deported to Iran.
The complaint:
3.1
The complainant claims that if returned to Iran he will be subjected to torture,
corporal punishment, and/or the death penalty for his involvement in smuggling many
Iranians dissidents to Sweden and other European countries, and his criticism of the Iranian
regime in the media.
3.2
The complainant claims that his refugee status was never revoked and could under no
circumstance be deemed to have been revoked by virtue of the 1995 cancellation of his
permanent residence permit, since the conditions laid down in Swedish immigration law for
the revocation of refugee status, which resemble those set out in the 1951 UN Refugee
Convention, were not met either then or subsequently.
3.3
The complainant claims that there is a consistent pattern of gross human rights
violations in Iran, and that repression has become harsher. He provides documents from