CCPR/C/115/D/2366/2014 procedure, or for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds (H&C) until 12 months after the decision on his asylum application has been issued.3 The complaint 3.1 The author submits that Canada would violate his rights under articles 6 (1), 7, 9 (1), 19 (1) and (2), and 26 of the Covenant by forcibly removing him to Bangladesh, where he says that he fears that he will be personally targeted and persecuted by the authorities, who view him as a threat on account of his investigative journalism exposing extortion committed by the police.4 The author maintains that his work as a journalist has already caused “armed thugs” associated with the Awami League to threaten him with death; he further asserts that the police and the thugs are “still after” him. He argues that as clearly shown by past incidents, victims cannot hope for any help in Bangladesh from the government authorities, who are themselves responsible for committing acts of violence. 3.2 The author alleges that conditions in Bangladesh are becoming more dangerous for journalists and Bangladesh National Party supporters such as himself. He cites numerous reports and articles in support of his assertion that since the elections on 5 January 2014, journalists and other members of the media are at a greater risk of persecution and are regularly threatened and jailed. 5 The cited reports and articles refer, inter alia, to the following incidents in the period 2012-2014: a police raid on a printing press; government control over most of the mass media (especially electronic media); physical attacks on journalists who have reported on political violence; detention of the acting editor of the daily newspaper Amar Desh; detention and arrest of human rights defenders, journalists and other citizens under the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006, which curtails freedom of speech and expression; criminal charges filed against two senior members of the human rights organization Odhikar in the wake of its report on the killing of 61 people by government forces during a protest; surveillance and harassment of Odhikar staff throughout Bangladesh; the murder of a journalist who had received death threats after reporting on the local criminal drug trade; attacks on five journalists who were covering alleged extortion by university students in the capital; an attack on the offices of an Internet news outlet in Dhaka, in which at least nine journalists were wounded; widespread impunity in Bangladesh for perpetrators of violence against journalists; and an 3 4 5 The author provides a copy of his first Pre-Removal Risk Assessment application, which was rejected on 17 March 2014. It includes an unsigned affidavit dated 5 March 2014 from A, senior reporter for The Daily Kaler Kantho, confirming the author’s occupation and position at the newspaper and that the author had received threats to his life because of his reports against the Government’s “powerful terrorist force”. A further states that after the author left the country, A himself and his family received several phone calls from members of the terrorist group of the current ruling party and police force making threats against their lives and other threats. For that reason, A states that he and his family are trying to leave Bangladesh and that the author should not be sent back there. The author provides a copy of an article he claims to have written for The Daily Kaler Kontho dated 2 July 2011 entitled “Drug dealing in broad daylight”. The article reports on open drug dealing in the Agargaon slum and names N.H. [sic] and his son as overseers of the slum. The author cites the following sources: Committee to Protect Journalists, “Bangladesh arrests three journalists, raids news outlet”, 17 January 2014; New Age Bangladesh, “Inquilab office sealed off”, 17 January 2014; New Age Bangladesh, “BNP march fails to take off as police, AL men rule roads”, 30 December 2013; Human Rights Watch, “Bangladesh: drop charges, stop harassment of Odhikar”, 15 January 2014; Committee to Protect Journalists, “Bangladeshi journalist brutally stabbed, killed”, 18 June 2012; Committee to Protect Journalists, “Bangladeshi journalists attacked while covering extortion”, 25 April 2013; Committee to Protect Journalists, “Journalists wounded in newsroom attack in Bangladesh”, 29 May 2012; Committee to Protect Journalists, “Bangladeshi journalists call for justice in couple’s murder”, 27 February 2012; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2014: Bangladesh. 5