CAT/C/34/D/233/2003** Page 4 The facts as presented 2.1 In 1982, the complainant was arrested on account of his family connection to his cousin, who had been arrested for suspected involvement in the assassination of the former Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. Before his release in March 1983, he was allegedly subjected to torture. The complainant, active at university in the Islamic movement, completed his studies in 1986 and married Ms. Hannan Attia. He avoided various police searches, but encountered difficulties, such as the arrest of his attorney, when he brought a civil claim in 1991 against the Ministry of Home Affairs, for suffering during his time in prison. 2.2 In 1991, the complainant left Egypt for Saudi Arabia on security grounds, and thereafter to Pakistan, where his wife and children joined him. After the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan refused to renew their passports, the family left in July 1995 for Syria under assumed Sudanese identities, in order to continue to Europe. This plan failed and the family moved to Iran, where the complainant was granted a university scholarship. 2.3 In 1998, the complainant was tried in Egypt for terrorist activity directed against the State before a “Superio r Court Martial” in absentia, along with over one hundred other accused. He was found guilty of belonging to the terrorist group “Al Gihad”, and was sentenced, without possibility of appeal, to 25 years’ imprisonment. In 2000, concerned that improving relations between Egypt and Iran would result in his being returned to Egypt, the complainant and his family bought air tickets, under Saudi Arabian identities, to Canada, and claimed asylum during a transit stop in Stockholm, Sweden, on 23 September 2000. 2.4 In his asylum application, the complainant claimed that he had been sentenced to “penal servitude for life” in absentia on account of terrorism linked to Islamic fundamentalism, 2 and that, if returned, he would be executed as other accused in the same proceedings allegedly had been. His wife contended that, if returned, she would be detained for many years, as the complainant’s wife. On 23 May 2001, the Migration Board sought the opinion of the Swedish Security Police on the case. On 14 September 2001, the Migration Board held a “major enquiry” with the complainant, with a further enquiry following on 3 October 2001. During of the same month, the Security Police questioned the complainant. On 30 October 2001, the Security Police advised the Migration Board that the complainant held a leading position in an organisation guilty of terrorist acts and was responsible for the activities of the organisation. The Migration Board thus forwarded the complainant’s case, on 12 November 2001, to the Government for a strength of the decision under chapter 7, section 11(2)(2), of the Aliens Act. In the Board’s view, on the information before it, the complainant could be considered entitled to claim refugee status; however, the Security Police’s assessment, which the Board saw no reason to question, pointed in a different direction. The balancing of the complainant’s possible need for protection against the Security Police’s assessment, thus had to be made by the Government. On 13 November 2001, the Aliens Appeals Board, whose view the Government had sought, shared the Migration Board’s assessment of the merits and also considered that the Government should decide the matter. In a statement, the complainant denied belonging to the organisation referred to in the Security Police statement, arguing that one of the designated organisations was not a political 2 Counsel explains the variation with the actual sentence on the basis that a 25 year sentence amounted to the same as few could be expected to endure that length of time in prison.