CAT/C/59/D/634/2014 9.7 The Committee further recalls that, although it is for the complainants to establish a prima facie case for their asylum requests, the State party is not exempt from making substantial efforts to determine whether there are grounds for believing that the complainants would be in danger of being subjected to torture if returned to their country of origin.25 As to the risk of torture presently faced by the complainants upon their return to the Russian Federation, the Committee observes that the State party does not dispute that persons suspected by the authorities of being accomplices of insurgents in Ingushetia and in the North Caucasus in general have been subjected to torture or that, in the present case, the complainants would be able to rely, upon their return to the Russian Federation, on the authorities’ protection from possible retaliation or reprisals by the insurgents. The State party also did not contest that the authorities in the Russian Federation might suspect the first complainant of having joined the insurgents after his release from detention in November 2013 because his whereabouts have been unknown to them ever since. In this context, the Committee also notes that, at present, several aspects of the human rights situation in the Russian Federation, in particular in the North Caucasus, remain matters of concern. It recalls that it expressed its concerns in its concluding observations following the examination of the fifth periodic report of the Russian Federation in 2012, citing numerous, ongoing and consistent reports of serious human rights abuses inflicted by or at the instigation or with the consent or acquiescence of public officials or other persons acting in official capacities in the North Caucasus, including torture and ill-treatment, abductions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The Committee also expressed its concern about the failure of the authorities in the Russian Federation to investigate and punish perpetrators of such abuses.26 9.8 Under the circumstances, the Committee finds that in determining whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the complainants would face a foreseeable, real and personal risk of being subjected to torture if deported to their country of origin, the State party has failed to duly verify the complainants’ claims and evidentiary documentation, including the medical report issued by the Amnesty International Danish Medical Group and the first complainant’s other medical records, through proceedings meeting the State party’s procedural obligation to provide for effective, independent and impartial review as required by article 3 of the Convention. Therefore, the Committee considers that, as a result of rejecting the first complainant’s credibility without ordering his medical examination for signs of torture, the State party effectively failed to sufficiently investigate whether there are substantial grounds for believing that he and his family would be in danger of being subjected to torture if returned to their country of origin at present.27 10. In the light of the foregoing, the Committee, acting under article 22 (7) of the Convention, concludes that the complainants’ deportation to the Russian Federation would constitute a breach of article 3 of the Convention. 11. The Committee is of the view that, in accordance with article 3 of the Convention, the State party has an obligation to refrain from forcibly returning the complainants to the Russian Federation or to any other country where there is a real risk of them being expelled or returned to the Russian Federation. Pursuant to rule 118, paragraph 5, of its rules of procedure, the Committee invites the State party to inform it, within 90 days from the date of the transmittal of the present decision, of the steps it has taken to respond to the above observations. 25 26 27 See, inter alia, communication No. 464/2011, K.H. v. Denmark, decision adopted on 23 November 2012, para. 8.8. See CAT/C/RUS/CO/5, para. 13. See, inter alia, F.K. v. Denmark, para. 7.6. 15