CAT/C/50/D/439/2010 and was in hiding from the authorities. For approximately the past five years, the authorities had made regular visits to the family home in search of his brother, at different times of day and, on average, twice a week, hoping to find out his whereabouts and the precise nature of his activities. Officers searched the house for weapons, among other things, and sometimes beat the members of his family. On one occasion, the authorities saw the brother in question flee the house over the rooftops and they opened fire but did not hit him. After the death of their father, the complainant became the head of the family and thus the target of the authorities’ questioning and searches. 2.2 After a year had passed, in 2005, the complainant decided to leave the country to flee from the harassment of the authorities, who were constantly hounding him and invading his privacy.2 2.3 His younger brother, viewed as being the head of the family following the departure of the complainant, was detained by the Iranian security services for one week; on another occasion, he was reportedly detained for “two or three days”. He was allegedly threatened with prison and was tortured (his genitals were reportedly burned during one such detention).3 His family has also been harassed by the secret service, and one of his brothers has been threatened with prison. The B. family, in a broad sense is a clan residing in the south of the country and has been subjected to surveillance by the authorities; several people with the name B. have been detained and killed, particularly young men, while others have disappeared. The complainant has no way to communicate by phone or mail with his family in the Islamic Republic of Iran, inasmuch as the Iranian authorities monitor the mail and telephone calls. 2.4 In 2006, the complainant participated in a public demonstration in front of the Iranian embassy in Bern with an Arab group. A photograph showing the complainant at the demonstration was posted on a website. According to the complainant, judging by the pressure brought to bear on his brother, the Iranian authorities were thus made aware of the fact that he had demonstrated. In order to protect his relatives back home, the complainant decided to stop all political activities in Switzerland. 2.5 His application for asylum was denied by the Federal Office for Migration on 19 January 2006. On 23 December 2009, the complainant’s counsel filed a request for the Office to reconsider its refusal of his application and its call for his return. The Office considered that request to be a new application for asylum and rejected it on 26 February 2010. No appeal was filed against the Office’s decision. On 1 June 2010, SAJE filed another request for reconsideration, supported by new evidence (it submitted a medical report dated 24 April 2010, according to which the complainant suffered from insomnia, severe distress, anxiety, nervousness and depression, as well as HCV positive viraemia). On 11 June 2010, the Office dismissed the application. On 8 July 2010, SAJE filed an appeal with the Federal Administrative Court against the Office’s decision. The appeal was rejected by a ruling handed down on 3 September 2010, on the grounds that the request for reconsideration had been filed more than 90 days after notification of the last decision of the Federal Office for Migration and that the medical problems were not serious enough to justify reconsideration.4 The complainant believes that the Federal Office for Migration 2 3 4 GE.13-45608 The complainant explains that he was unable to start a new life elsewhere in the Islamic Republic of Iran because he is uneducated, does not speak Farsi, comes from the Arab minority and, above all, because of the clan structure of Iranian society, whereby people become outsiders if they leave their family and their city to settle in another town without their relatives. He also adds that he did not respond to a call to military service. The complainant provides no explanation as to the reasons for his brother’s detention and persecution. According to the complainant, an application for review may be submitted to the authorities within 90 3