CAT/C/51/D/387/2009
considered that when a person can relocate to another part of the country, article 3 of the
Convention is not violated.5
4.8
During the asylum procedure, the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) took into
account that the complainant was a member of the UNP and had been involved in the JSS
and may have, on occasion, been harassed by his political opponents; but it was not
convinced that this amounted to persecution within the meaning of the Refugee
Convention. The RRT considered that the JVP was not particularly interested in the
complainant and that the chances of him being persecuted for his political opinion if he
were returned to Sri Lanka were remote. The RRT considered that the numerous threats that
the complainant allegedly received from Mr. L.A. did not result in any concrete act. As for
the recruitment, the RRT did not find this allegation credible, as a party would not have any
advantage in forcefully recruiting someone who would never show allegiance to it.
4.9
The State party points at the inconsistencies between the information provided in the
protection visa application and that provided at the RRT hearing. The complainant
explained at the time that the divergences were linked to his mental state at the time of his
first application. The State party notes, however, that according to the psychological report
provided by Foundation House on 8 February 2009, the complainant’s anxiety and
depression were exacerbated by events in immigration detention, such as visa refusals and
the prospect of repatriation. The State party also notes a series of inconsistencies and
omissions in the complainant’s case, including with regard to events of intimidation that he
reported for the first time in his third request for ministerial intervention on 27 May 2009.
There are also discrepancies concerning the complainant’s disclosure — to the Australian
authorities during the asylum procedure and to the psychologist of Foundation House, as
contained in the second report dated 25 October 2009 — of how he obtained the visa to
come to Australia. The State party notes on this aspect that this report was submitted with
the complainant’s fourth request for ministerial intervention dated 15 February 2010, after
the communication was submitted to the Committee against Torture.
4.10 The complainant relies on written testimony from his mother, taken from the
information book of the Matale hospital police station. This testimony alleges that in
February 2009, people invaded the house of the complainant’s mother in search of the
complainant, and that the property was destroyed and his mother injured. However, this
testimony differs from the testimony obtained from the information book of the
Warakapola Police Station, which was provided to Australian Immigration authorities with
the application for ministerial intervention dated 27 May 2009, which contains no evidence
of Government involvement. The same incident was referred to in the psychological report
submitted with the request for ministerial intervention on 15 February 2010, except that it
states that the perpetrators were Tamil-speaking men. This detail concerning the alleged
perpetrators was for the first time presented before the Committee. These discrepancies
caused the State party to question the veracity of the allegations submitted by the
complainant. The four-year lapse in time between the complainant’s original political
activity and the claim of retributive activity on the part of Sri Lankan government officials
towards the complainant’s mother brings into doubt the connection between the two sets of
events.
4.11 As for the complainant’s allegations regarding a risk of torture by the LTTE, the
State party considers it inadmissible because it is incompatible with the provisions of the
Convention against Torture. The acts mentioned by the complainant cannot be considered
torture under article 1 of the Convention as they would not be committed by, at the
5
The State party refers to Committee against Torture, communication No. 245/2004, S.S.S. v. Canada,
decision adopted on 16 November 2005, para. 8.5.
7