CAT/C/49/D/385/2009
supervision and interrogation on a regular basis of M.A.F., the State party considers that it
could have been expected that some form of written evidence would have been presented in
support of the claimants’ account of events.
4.5
The State party considers that the complainants’ oral and written submissions
contain elements of vagueness and inconsistency. In particular, the complainants have
failed to provide any explanation as to the nature of the activities of M.A.F.’s brother other
than the assertion, which was not submitted until the oral hearing at the Migration Court,
that he was contacted on a number of occasions by army officers who provided him with
documents. The State party considers it highly improbable that the complainants would
have no information about the political activities of M.A.F.’s brother if they had in fact led
to the severe consequences described by the complainants.
4.6
The State party considers the complainants’ submission as to how they were able to
leave Libya in spite of the alleged persecution by the authorities to be vague and
inconsistent. Before leaving Libya, the complainants claim to have received help from a
man who informed them that M.A.F. was to be arrested before 1 September 2007. The
complainants did not initially provide any information about this man, and claimed only at
the oral hearing before the Migration Court that he was a friend of M.A.F.’s father, who is a
retired colonel, without providing an explanation as to why the man had information about
the alleged arrest warrant. The complainants submitted divergent information regarding a
second man who helped them escape, claiming in a written submission by their counsel to
the Migration Board of 19 September 2007 that he was an acquaintance of Z.A.’s parents,
and in the interview by the Migration Board on 10 December 2007 that he was a relative of
Z.A. In the written submission by the complainants’ counsel to the Migration Board, it is
claimed that the police, in connection with M.A.F.’s release from detention in 2006, told
him to disappear from the country. The State party would therefore have expected the
complainants to have been able to obtain authentic passports. The State party considers that
the complainants have submitted vague and inconsistent information in important respects,
without providing a satisfactory explanation, which weakens the credibility of their
submissions.
4.7
The State party notes that the complainants, during the course of the procedure
before the Swedish authorities, added allegations of significance to their application for
asylum. It was not until the oral hearing at the Migration Court that the complainants
claimed that M.A.F. was regularly subjected to interrogations during the period 2003-2006,
that he was subjected to supervision and forced to sign documents on a regular basis for
about four months in connection with his release from prison in 2006, and that a warrant for
his arrest had been issued in March 2007 following his refusal to comply with the demands
of the authorities from late 2006. The State party considers it improbable that the Libyan
authorities would take so long to act on his refusal to obey them. Furthermore, in the
written submission by the complainants’ counsel to the Migration Board of 19 September
2007, it was stated that the Libyan police had not caused M.A.F.’s wife or children any
physical harm, but in the appeal to the Migration Court of 9 January 2008, it was claimed
that on 23 November 2002 Z.A. was pushed by police in a manner that caused her to lose
the foetus she was carrying. The appeal also stated, in addition to what was submitted to the
Migration Board, that the police beat M.A.F. on one occasion, causing him a broken nasal
bone. The State party considers that the addition of allegations of importance subsequent to
the Migration Board’s decision to reject the complainants’ applications, without a
satisfactory explanation as to why this information was initially omitted, weakens the
credibility of the complainants’ submissions.
4.8
The State party further notes that the complainants’ allegations before the
Committee are not completely consistent with their statements to the Swedish migration
authorities. Before the Committee, the complainants submit that M.A.F. was interrogated
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