CAT/C/57/D/605/2014
that the complainant had travelled to Kilinochchi and this had led to a suspicion that the
complainant had connections with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, it would have had
the power to detain him at that time. However, the complainant was let go. The Department
of Immigration and Border Protection has assessed the fact that the complainant was
released as indicating that he was not a person of interest. In regard to the complainant’s
attempt to view the deceased body, the State party claims that there is no reasonable
explanation for the author not to have disclosed pertinent information to the Refugee
Review Tribunal such as the fact that he and Mr. K.’s wife had opened the coffin and found
the body mutilated or not to have disclosed in the submission the fact that there was a video
that put the author at risk of harm. 21 Consequently, the State party has not accepted these
claims as a true account of events and has therefore not taken them as evidence that the
complainant would be subjected to torture if returned to Sri Lanka.
7.8
Furthermore, the State party points out that the complainant claimed that after being
detained and interrogated in 2008, no other adverse incidents occurred until 2011, three
years after Mr. K.’s death. When asked at his protection visa interview if anything else had
happened to him after he was detained in 2008, the author responded that in 2011 some
people had come to his parents’ place (his previous residence)22 and asked where he was.
However, this claim has been inconsistent throughout the assessment process. It was
accepted by both the protection visa decision maker and the Refugee Review Tribunal that
the author continued to live and work in the same place (or close by) from 2006 until he
departed for Australia in June 2012. In addition, he provided information to the Tribunal
saying that he had continued working until his departure in 2012. Consequently, his claims
that people have been looking for him since 2008 are not considered to be evidence of a
real and current risk of torture if returned to Sri Lanka. Although he submits that Mr. K.’s
death is “highly suspicious”, the author has not articulated how the suspicious
circumstances surrounding Mr. K.’s death would engage the State party’s non-refoulement
obligations under article 3 of the Convention against Torture.
7.9. The State party does not consider the complainant’s reference to WZAPN v. Minister
for Immigration and Border Protection, and the High Court appeal, to be relevant to the
State party’s obligations towards the author under the Convention, as that case relates to the
interpretation of provisions of domestic legislation directed at implementing the
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as amended by the Protocol relating to the
Status of Refugees. Consequently, the State party submits that these claims are inadmissible
ratione materiae.
7.10 The State party notes that all domestic remedies have been exhausted, as High Court
proceedings were dismissed on 29 October 2015.
Issues and proceedings before the Committee
Consideration of admissibility
8.1
Before considering any claims contained in a complaint, the Committee must decide
whether it is admissible under article 22 of the Convention. The Committee has ascertained,
as it is required to do under article 22 (5) (a) of the Convention, that the same matter has
not been and is not being examined under another procedure of international investigation
or settlement.
21
22
GE.16-09596
The complainant did not tell the Tribunal that when he and some family members went to visit the
coffin, they opened it and found the body mutilated. Instead, he told the Tribunal that he was at risk
because a video had been taken of him when he went to visit the body of the deceased at the hospital.
No exact date was provided in respect of this incident.
11