CAT/C/44/D/356/2008
involved with the PKK. Moreover, in the army, he wouldn’t have any protection against
persecution.
2.10 According to the complainant, in general, the Swiss authorities have failed to examine
the evidence in his case in its totality, and they instead have concentrated on specific
elements, which were declared non-established. The complainant’s torture allegations were
not sufficiently addressed by the authorities, even if he had described them in a sufficiently
detailed manner. Although his torture scars are still visible, nobody from either the Federal
Office of Migration or the CAM examined them in person or provided comments on them.
The complaint
3. The complainant claims that his forcible return to Turkey would constitute a breach by
Switzerland of its obligations under article 3 of the Convention.
State party’s observations on admissibility and merits
4.1
The State party presented its observations on admissibility and merits by Note
verbale of 13 March 2009. It recalls the facts of the case and notes that, with one exception,
the complainant presents to the Committee exactly the same allegations as those presented
to and examined by the Swiss asylum authorities and the Federal Court for administrative
matters. The new element is a letter signed by an individual who alleges that he has been
kept in the same prison with one of the complainant’s cousins.
4.2
The State party affirms that its asylum authorities’ decisions are correct and legally
grounded. The Federal Office of Migration has found the complainant’s allegations as
lacking in credibility and contradictory. It had noted that the complainant never
documented the judicial proceedings under which he allegedly had been released, in 1993,
even though the Swiss authorities had asked him, on several occasions, to provide evidence
in this respect. Another element that weakened the complainant’s credibility was his
behaviour which did not correspond to that which one could reasonably expect from an
individual who was sought by the police in Istanbul, Siirt, Ankara or Izmir. The FOM
found it surprising that the complainant went to Istanbul to live there secretly for seven
years, and his explanations that he needed to save money there in order to flee were not
convincing. The FOM also found other contradictions in the complainant’s description of
the facts. Thus, at his second interview, he had contended having been arrested and tortured
every two-three days after his release, following the above-mentioned judicial proceedings.
At the same time, however, during his first interview, the complainant contended that he
had been arrested, one first time following the proceedings, and a second time, around one
month later.
4.3
According to the State party, the Federal Administrative Court did not simply
confirm the FOM’s conclusions. It noted also that several independent sources had reported
about the events that the complainant allegedly had witnessed. The Court did, inter alia,
refer
to
a
detailed
report
of
Amnesty
International
(http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/pdf/EUR440841996ENGLISH/$File/EUR4408496.p
df ; p.25) attributing explicitly the responsibility of the 1993 attack to the PKK,
contradicting the complainant’s allegations. The Court emphasized that the complainant
failed to adduce any proof with respect to his judicial proceedings in relation to his release.
4.4
The CAM also assessed the rest of the complainant’s allegations. On the
complainant’s fear to serve in the army, the Court observed that the problems experienced
5