CAT/C/50/D/467/2011 The facts as presented by the complainants 2.1 The complainants lived in the city of Aden, in the southern part of Yemen. Y.B.F. (the first complainant) worked as a technician in a petroleum refinery. 2.2 On 21 May 2009, the first complainant participated in a demonstration organized by supporters of the Southern Movement, which calls for the independence of South Arabia (South Yemen) from Yemen. The protest rally in question was against the unequal pay between employees of the petroleum refineries in the north and the south of Yemen, as well as against other forms of discrimination towards southerners. When police officers started to disperse the demonstrators, he received a truncheon blow to the nose and was arrested. He was held at al-Mansoura prison in Aden, accused of being a supporter of the al-Herak movement, questioned and intimidated. While in detention, delegates of the nongovernmental organization al-Mauna visited the prison and took the first complainant’s personal data. He was released on 30 June 2009 but remained under surveillance. 2.3 On 6 July 2009, the first complainant was arrested at his home and beaten. He was then brought to al-Brika Police Centre, where individuals detained for political reasons were usually kept, until the evening of the next day when another demonstration of the Southern Movement was expected to take place. After his release, the first complainant was informed by one of his friends working for the intelligence service that the former was registered as an activist of the Southern Movement by the Political Security Organization and might be apprehended again at any moment. As a consequence, the first complainant decided to begin organizing the departure of his family. 2.4 On 12 January 2010, security service officers visited the first complainant’s home in Aden. As he was not present, they left a summons issued by the Ministry of Interior, alBrika Directorate. The summons referred to article 64 of the Criminal Code. The first complainant complied with the order and went to the al-Brika Police Centre, where he was threatened verbally and detained for 24 hours. 2.5 On 19 January 2010, the complainants left Yemen by plane with a Schengen visa issued by the Italian Embassy and travelled to Milan, transiting through Cairo. On 21 January 2010, they arrived in Switzerland and applied for asylum. 1 2.6 The first complainant is an active member of the Southern Movement in Switzerland, which is referred to by the complainants interchangeably as the Southern Democratic Assembly and the Southern Mobility Movement. He is responsible for the Movement’s public relations in the canton of Fribourg. He regularly attends meetings and demonstrations. Reacting to the upheavals in Yemen, the first complainant has become more and more active within the organization in Switzerland. Several high-ranking members of the Southern Democratic Assembly have provided attestations and letters in support of the first complainant’s asylum application. 2.7 On 27 January 2010 and 10 February 2010, the Federal Office for Migration held asylum interviews with the complainants. On 5 May 2010, the Office rejected the complainants’ asylum requests and ordered their expulsion, stating that the complainants’ accounts could not be deemed credible. In the light of the fact that the complainants left Yemen lawfully by plane from the international airport in Sana’a, the Federal Office for Migration questioned, in particular, the first complainant’s claim that he had been registered by the security service in Yemen as an activist of the Southern Movement. Furthermore, the complainants’ claim that their passports were destroyed by a smuggler 1 The asylum application of S.A.Q. is based in its entirety on the alleged persecution of her husband by the Yemeni authorities. 3