CCPR/C/117/D/2462/2014 section 7 of the Aliens Act if he returned to Bangladesh. In the Board decision of 4 December 2012, the author was found not to have rendered probable that he had been subjected to abuse and persecution prior to his departure in the way he described. Consequently, the Board dismissed the author’s statements as unlikely and apparently fabricated. In its decision of 19 September 2014, the Board concluded that the reasons given by the author as to the risk of persecution he would face upon his return were closely connected to those events and no other reason was provided. It therefore concluded that the author had failed to substantiate his claim that his possible homosexuality had resulted in a conflict with the authorities or private individuals in Bangladesh that would justify granting him asylum. 4.6 On the contrary, the State party considers as a fact that the author was not subjected to persecution, abuse or similar treatment prior to his departure, because he was able to live in Bangladesh as a homosexual until his departure in 2011/2012 without coming into conflict with the authorities of the State party or with private individuals. The State party agrees with the assessment of the Refugee Appeals Board that the mere reference to the general background information available on the condition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Bangladesh is not sufficient to substantiate the claim that the author would be at risk of persecution or abuse upon his return to Bangladesh. In its decision of 19 September 2014, the Board noted that the situation of homosexuals in Bangladesh had improved considerably in recent years and that although homosexuality was illegal pursuant to section 337 of the Criminal Code, the act was not enforced in practice. The State party further notes that numerous support networks for homosexual men have been established in the country. As regards the author’s membership of LGBT Asylum, the Board was not able to take it into account in its decision of 4 December 2012 because, as indicated by the author himself and by the letter of the association, he only became a member in October 2013. 4.7 The State party takes note of the newspaper article from the Daily Banglar Manush of 24 March 2013, which was submitted by the author to the Refugee Appeals Board on 12 April 2013 after he had obtained it through friends of a friend.13 According to the article, an elderly lady named Rokeya Begum had hanged herself on 22 March 2012 in the village of Rangarlirbosh. During the investigation, it was allegedly discovered that two boys, one of them being the author, had had a homosexual relationship in July 2011, that they had been apprehended and brought to a member of the village council, and had spent the night with their hands tied behind their backs. The article also stated that the boys were banished from the village and that one of them had come back there two months later to see his sister and that on this occasion, he was captured and tortured, including through the removal of his genitals, following which he died. The article also reported that the author’s family now led an isolated life because of his homosexuality and that his father had died from a heart attack on 2 March 2012. The Board assessed that it could not verify the authenticity of the newspaper article, considering the time of its appearance, the lack of clarity of its sources in Bangladesh and its procurement through the author’s friends in Saudi Arabia. The Board also found that the article lacked credibility as to its content, considering the amount of specific details, which corresponded exactly to the author’s statements on his grounds for seeking asylum. It appeared therefore to have been fabricated for the occasion, considering that false documents are common in Bangladesh, according to the information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that respect, the Board, despite the confirmation provided by the Bangladesh office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that a newspaper of the relevant name did exist, did not find it 13 6 The author has not produce a translated version of the document, which had to be arranged by the Board, and did not explain how he came into possession of the document.