CAT/C/54/D/556/2013
sentenced to six months of imprisonment and another year on probation. On 16 December
2010, he was released and shortly thereafter, he “went up into the mountains”. 1
2.2
On 5 August 2011, the complainant was apprehended by law enforcement agents,
taken to a nearby forest and beaten until he lost consciousness. Then, he was taken to a
building and subjected to electric shocks. 2 The authorities wanted to know his brother’s
whereabouts. The complainant was subsequently released, and went to his uncle’s home,
where he stayed for one week in the interests of safety. He received medical assistance at a
nearby hospital, but was told by the medical staff that they could not register the authorities
as the perpetrators of his injuries, since that would be dangerous for them. On returning to
his house, he noticed that he was being followed.3 On 17 October 2011, his house was
raided by policemen wearing masks. He was not arrested because he was not in the house
when the raid happened. However, the masked policemen took his parents’ identity
documents and gave them 15 minutes to pack. After that, his house was set on fire and
destroyed.
2.3
On 19 October 2011, he was taken by his uncle to Belarus and from there to
Lithuania. On 24 October 2011, he arrived in Sweden and on the same date applied for
asylum there.
2.4
On 31 May 2012, the Migration Board denied his asylum request. According to the
summary in English provided by the complainant, the Board held that it was unclear how
the complainant knew that his brother was a rebel. In addition, the Board stated that the
complainant’s statements contained some unclear points, for instance, whether he had a
registered address in Chechnya or Ingushetia and whether he had been arrested six or eight
months after his brother’s disappearance, and that he had provided conflicting accounts
concerning who took his passport. The Board also indicated that it was strange that the
officials had burned down the family house, since the complainant’s parents were not
suspected of any crime. Furthermore, the Board found that, as the complainant had not
personally assisted the rebels, it was implausible that the authorities would be interested in
him. The complainant appealed this decision before the Migration Court.
2.5
On 12 December 2012, the Migration Court denied the complainant’s request for
oral proceedings at the Court and his request for the invoked documents to be translated.4
On 12 March 2013, the Court denied the request to translate the invoked documents and
rejected the complainant’s appeal against the Migration Board’s decision of 31 May 2012.
The Court stated that the fact that the complainant was released by the police the same day
he was arrested suggested that he was not of particular interest to the authorities in
Chechnya. Further, his parents’ house was raided despite him not being there. Thus, the
Court found that he did not provide sufficient evidence to support his claim that he was in
1
2
3
4
The complaint does not provide further information nor does it enclose documentation in this regard.
On 12 July 2013, the complainant provided a further submission in which he stated that he had been
arrested and mistreated on a previous occasion. Nevertheless, the submission does not provide any
additional details or information in that regard.
The complaint does not provide further information or contain documentation relating to these
claims/events.
The complaint does not provide further details or information in this regard. It does not explain the
circumstances in which the complainant requested that the documents be translated or why he made
that request.
3