CAT/C/63/DR/698/2015 Advance unedited version
reason for determining that a particular person would be in danger of being subjected to
torture on return to his country. There must therefore be additional grounds for the risk of
torture to be "foreseeable, real and personal" within the meaning of Article 3 (1) of the
Convention.18 The Committee has confirmed its practice after noting that the human rights
situation in the Russian Federation remains of concern in a number of areas, in particular in
the Northern Caucasus.19 In its General Comment No.1, para. 6, the Committee
unequivocally stated that the risk of torture must be assessed on grounds that go beyond mere
theory or suspicion.
4.8
In their submission, the complainants claim that because of their connection to the
second husband of the first complainant, they would have a political profile exposing them
to the concrete, real and personal risk of being tortured in the event of removal. However,
they have not substantiated their allegations. The situation in their country cannot on its own
constitute a sufficient ground for concluding that the complainants would be in danger of
being tortured in the event of removal. The complainants have not demonstrated that they
would run a foreseeable, personal and real risk of being subjected to torture upon return to
the Russian Federation.
4.9
With regard to the allegations of torture in the past, the State party asserts that torture
or ill-treatment a complainant suffered in the past is one of the elements to be taken into
account in assessing the complainant's risk of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment in
case of return to her/his country. In the present case, before the Committee, the first author
argues that in June 2012, four years after the arrest of her second husband, a certain Yusup,
an "army official", would have recognized her at her place of work and would have asked her
questions about her second husband's friends and their activities. Then he would have
kidnapped her, threatened her and raped her on several occasions. The first complainant made
the same allegations in the domestic process and they were examined carefully by the national
authorities. In particular, the FOM noted that the first complainant did not, according to her
own account, consult a doctor after being raped.
4.10 The medical certificate of 27 July 2015 presented to the Committee is the only
document to support the allegations of rape. However, its contents do not allow conclusions
to be drawn as to the acts that the first complainant claims to have suffered. The present case
is thus different from the V.L. v. Switzerland, referred to by the complainants, given the
absence of evidence.20 In addition, the national authorities considered that the allegations of
the first complainant concerning the alleged ill-treatment suffered were not credible.
4.11 Another factor that must be taken into account in assessing a complainant's risk of
being subjected to torture upon return to her/his country of origin is whether she/he has
engaged to political activities in or outside of the State of origin. In the present case, the
complainants do not claim to have engaged in any political activities in their country of origin
or in Switzerland.
4.12 Furthermore, the State party proceeds to explain the factual inconsistencies in the
complainants' claims and challenges the credibility of the latter. It refers in full to the reasons
given in the decisions of the national asylum authorities as to why the complainants'
allegations are not credible and therefore their statements cannot lead to the conclusion that
there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be exposed to torture in case of
return to their country of origin. The State party highlights several points in this regard.
4.13 In the first asylum procedure, the first complainant claimed to have entered into a
religious marriage with her second husband in 2007. The latter was reportedly arrested by
masked soldiers in August 2008 as a suspected Chechen fighter. Yusup, one of the soldiers
involved in the arrest, reportedly recognized her about four years later at the restaurant where
she worked as a waitress. He asked her questions about the husband's activities, threatened
her, harassed her, and then repeatedly raped her.
18
19
20
6
See KN v. Switzerland, para 10.5; JUA v. Switzerland (CAT/C/21/D/100/1997), paras. 6.3 and 6.5;
TM vs. Republic of Korea (CAT/C/53/D/519/2012), para. 9.7.
See S.K. et al v. Sweden (CAT/C/54/D/550/2013), para. 7.6.
See S.K. and others v. Sweden, para. 7.8.