CAT/C/59/D/634/2014
credibility throughout the proceedings,10 and the Board therefore has to reject the asylum
seeker’s statement on torture in its entirety.
4.8
Where the Refugee Appeals Board considers an asylum seeker to fall within section
7 of the Aliens Act, provided that his or her statements, including those relating to torture,
are true, but finds that the correctness of the statements is subject to some uncertainty, it
may decide to adjourn the proceedings pending an examination of the asylum seeker for
signs of torture that may be able to support the asylum seeker’s statements. When torture is
invoked as a ground for claiming asylum, factors like the nature of the torture, including the
extent, grossness and frequency of the abuse, and the asylum seeker’s age may be accorded
importance in the determination of the case. Moreover, the time of the abuse relative to the
asylum seeker’s departure and any changes in the regime in his or her country of origin
may be decisive in deciding whether residence is granted. An asylum seeker’s fear of abuse
in case of return to his or her country of origin may result in asylum being granted if it is
supported by an objectively founded assumption that the asylum seeker will be subjected to
abuse upon return.
4.9
With reference to rule 113 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the State party
submits that the complainants have failed to establish a prima facie case for the purpose of
admissibility of their complaint under article 3 of the Convention. Thus, it has not been
sufficiently substantiated that there are substantial grounds for believing that they are in
danger of being subjected to torture if returned to the Russian Federation. The complaint is
therefore inadmissible as manifestly unfounded.
4.10 Should the Committee find the complaint admissible, the State party submits that the
complainants have not sufficiently established that it would constitute a violation of article
3 of the Convention to return them to the Russian Federation. In this connection, it observes
that the complainants have not provided to the Committee any new information on their
conflicts in the Russian Federation beyond the information already available to the Refugee
Appeals Board when it made its decisions on 12 September 2014.
4.11 As to the complainants’ argument that the Danish immigration authorities rejected
their asylum applications without summoning the first complainant for an examination for
signs of torture, the State party submits that the Refugee Appeals Board does not initiate an
examination for signs of torture in cases in which the Board cannot accept as a fact the
asylum seeker’s statement on his or her grounds for asylum (see also para. 4.7). The State
party recalls that, in its decision of 12 September 2014, the Board did not consider to be
fact the first complainant’s statement on his grounds for seeking asylum because, on central
points, he had made inconsistent statements, including on the incident that gave rise to the
authorities’ interest in him. The Board emphasized, inter alia, that the first complainant had
made inconsistent statements11 on the type and quantity of goods bought by the two men in
his grocery shop on 15 September 2013, on the language used in the telephone conversation
by one of the two men who bought goods, on the place of delivery of the goods and on
whether he had been instructed where to stop the car, and on the circumstances after
waking up in prison (see also para. 2.7). The first complainant’s statement also contained
many small inconsistencies, which, however, could not in themselves be accorded crucial
importance.
10
11
Reference is made, inter alia, to communications No. 209/2002, M.O. v. Denmark, decision adopted
on 12 November 2003, paras. 6.4-6.6; and No. 466/2011, Alp v. Denmark, decision adopted on 14
May 2014, para. 8.4.
The State party makes a detailed comparison of the statements made by the first complainant at the
asylum screening interview conducted by the Danish Immigration Service, at the substantive asylum
interview conducted by the Danish Immigration Service and at the hearing before the Refugee
Appeals Board.
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