Alleged victim:The complainant State party:Sweden Date of complaint:17 May 2002 (initial submission) The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Meeting on 14 November 2003, Having concluded its consideration of complaint No. 213/2002, submitted to the Committee against Torture by Mr. E.J.V.M. under article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Having taken into account all information made available to it by the complainant and the State party, Adopts the following decision under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention. 1.1The complainant is E.J.V.M., a Costa Rican citizen, born in 1956, currently residing clandestinely in Sweden, following the rejection by Sweden on 19 February 2002 of his application for asylum. He claims that his deportation to Costa Rica would constitute a violation by Sweden of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (henceforth referred to as “the Convention”). He is not represented by counsel. 1.2The State party ratified the Convention on 8 January 1986, when it also made the declaration under article 22 of the Convention. The Convention entered into force for the State party on 26 June 1987. 1.3In accordance with article 22, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the Committee transmitted the complaint to the State party on 1 July 2002. The facts as submitted by the complainant 2.1The complainant joined the Youth Section of the Popular Vanguard Party (Communist) of Costa Rica in 1975, when he was a drama student at the University of Costa Rica. As an active member of Costa Rica’s Vanguard Youth (JVC), he participated in various student political and cultural activities. 2.2The complainant was arrested for the first time in 1975 during a student political meeting. Along with the other participants he was taken to a prison in San Juan de Tibás, where he alleges that he was physically and mentally tortured - insulted, threatened, kicked, his hair pulled, beaten on the ribs and spat on. 2.3The complainant managed to escape from prison and made for the province of Limón. He alleges that he was arrested several times and imprisoned in inhumane conditions, among convicted criminals, in rat-infested premises, with neither food nor a blanket nor anywhere to sleep. He alleges that he was arrested and released on numerous occasions, being allowed to leave and then being arrested again after 50 metres. He was finally able to escape and return to San José. 2.4In San José, the complainant again became involved in political activities at university. He alleges that he was arrested several times; while in detention he received death threats and was beaten and burned with cigarettes. He says that on one occasion he was taken to the General Detention Facility of the Ministry of Public Security, where he was subjected to numerous types of physical and mental ill-treatment, including being severely kicked and beaten, immersed in cold water in the early morning and forced to perform sexual acts with his captors. 2.5The complainant claims that, because of his Communist affiliations, he was prevented from working in the National Theatre Company and suspended from his acting classes. He also alleges that he was publicly attacked because he was bisexual. 2.6The complainant says that he fled to Venezuela, where he lived for two years before returning to Costa Rica in 1982. On his return he set up an underground theatre from which Radio Venceremos, the official medium of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), used to make clandestine broadcasts. He alleges that in 1985 security forces raided his house, beat him up and took him to San Juan de Tibás prison, where he was physically and mentally tortured. 2.7The complainant alleges that one night in the early 1990s, he was again detained, beaten and forced to perform fellatio on one of the guards while another insulted him. A third guard then started kicking him, causing such injuries to his face and body that he had to be taken to a hospital: he was threatened with death if he told what had happened. On his release, he reported the facts to the prosecutor’s office in San Pedro de Montes de Oca and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in San José. He claims that his complaint was not examined. 2.8Between 1992 and 1993, as a result of his participation in the defence of the rights of Limón peasants who were under pressure to sell their land cheaply, the complainant alleges that he was arrested in an operation coordinated by the national police and paramilitary groups opposed to the peasants. He says that he was taken to Limón prison, put in a cell swimming in urine and excrement, beaten and drenched with cold water. On his release, he found that his house had been raided and his personal belongings destroyed. 2.9The complainant claims that between 1994 and 1997 he was detained on more than 30 occasions and taken to court four times, accused, inter alia, of illegal possession of firearms, manufacture of explosives, occupation of land, aggravated threats and attempted homicide.