CAT/C/44/D/302/2006
Convention for abuse of rights, as the documents produced by the
complainant have all the characteristics of forgeries.
4.2
First, the State party wonders why the complainant should suddenly
be actively sought in 2006 when he had been in French territory since 2002.
Moreover, the documents produced, supposedly issued by departments of the
administration of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are all handwritten,
which supports the forgery hypothesis. The complainant does not explain
how internal administration documents from “the National Intelligence
Agency” came into his hands. Even assuming that “wanted notices” are
completed by hand, the State party has strong doubts as to the authenticity of
the alleged “deposition” of the individual called G.E., as this is an entirely
handwritten document on plain paper and the only “stamp” on it is the same
as the one found on the other documents produced. Moreover, the State party
believes that this document contains expressions that would be out of place
in police documents. It draws the Committee’s attention to the fact that
domestic courts have expressed similar doubts about documents of the same
type giving different dates from those mentioned above. It cites the Refugee
Appeals Board, which, in its decision of 18 April 2005, found that “the
authenticity of the two documents produced and presented as wanted notices,
one of which is dated 2 January 2005, is not sufficiently substantiated”.
These doubts were confirmed by the administrative court of Orléans on 25
August 2006, which noted that “spelling mistakes in the head and body of
the documents raise doubts about their authenticity”.
Complainant’s comments on the State party’s observations on
admissibility
5.1
In comments dated 18 September 2007, the complainant rejects the
State party’s argument that the documents he has produced have “all the
characteristics of forgeries” in that they are either entirely handwritten or
filled in by hand and contain expressions that would be out of place in police
documents, as well as spelling mistakes. Besides the fact that these claims do
not prove the documents are forgeries, the complainant explains that the
presentation of these documents is not surprising given the problems
encountered in the local administration.
5.2
The complainant believes that the reason why he was being actively
sought in 2006 when he had been in French territory since 2002 was that
there had been an upsurge in the activities of the Congolese police, which
shows that he would still be at risk if returned to his country.
State party’s observations on the merits
6.1
On 30 January 2008, the State party submitted its observations on the
merits of the complaint. First, it recalls its observations on admissibility and
reiterates its request that the Committee declare the communication primarily
inadmissible for abuse of the right of submission, in accordance with article
22, paragraph 2, of the Convention. In addition to its observations on
admissibility, the State party elaborates on the physical verification of the
authenticity of the documents produced by the complainant. In the State
party’s view, the only way to obtain such verification would be to make a
request through diplomatic channels to the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. However, although such an approach would theoretically be possible,
the State party believes that it might be counterproductive if the request did
4