CAT/C/63/D/673/2015
to reject his application for asylum, without addressing the explanations he provided in his
communication to the Committee. He submits that the State party has simply identified and
highlighted supposed discrepancies in his detailed explanations, deliberately overlooking
that it is precisely the degree of detail contained in those explanations that testifies to their
credibility. The real-life circumstances that led him to flee may not always appear logical or
plausible, especially when considered from the standpoint of a safe country. A simple,
logical and consistent story may, admittedly, be more comprehensible, but it is also more
likely to have been invented than a detailed biography, not all of whose points are always
immediately clear.
5.2
The complainant considers that he has proven and documented that the
Revolutionary Court of Tehran did pass a judgment against him, that he had been publicly
called upon to appear before the Court and that the judgment was subsequently published.
The State party has not taken these documents into account, choosing simply to state
dismissively that it is well known that such documents can easily be counterfeited in Iran.
The complainant submits that if the documents were indeed false, he would undoubtedly
have produced them much earlier in the course of proceedings, which he had been unable to
do. It was only with the help of his Iranian partner residing in Switzerland and her relations
residing in Iran that he had been able to obtain the documents. 22
5.3
With regard to the State party’s claim that the judgment of the Revolutionary Court
of Tehran is not sufficient grounds for concluding that the complainant runs the risk of
persecution as the result of any political activity he might have undertaken, it seems to the
complainant that the State party is implying that sufficient grounds for such a conclusion
would exist only if the judgment had clearly indicated that he had been convicted as a
Kurdish political militant. The complainant considers this to be an entirely unrealistic
viewpoint, since it is obvious that even Iran wishes to maintain, at least superficially, the
appearance of a State governed by the rule of law. He points out that he had to confess to a
firearm-related offence in order to secure his release from custody, a scenario that he
considers to be entirely plausible.
5.4
With regard to his political activities in Switzerland, the complainant points out that
the State party did not take into account the evidence provided, which clearly documents
that he has been deeply and consistently engaged in political activity in Switzerland and
that this activity alone brings with it a significant risk to his person in Iran. He considers the
fact that he did not formally identify himself as a senior official of an opposition political
party to be of no importance and that his documented engagement goes far beyond what
could be claimed to be the conduct of “pseudo-activism” for the purpose of inventing a
reason to flee. In that regard, he points out that, since 2009, using his real name, he has read
several revolutionary poems and articles written by him during radio broadcasts, criticizing
the crimes of the Iranian regime. He has also participated in protests, including two at the
Iranian Embassy in Bern, where embassy staff took videos and photographs. Furthermore,
he has participated in around 42 hours of weekly radio broadcasts on the human rights
violations committed in Iran. The audio files of those broadcasts are still available on the
website of the LoRa radio station. He further notes that he has held other positions, such as
founding executive member of Radio Nedaye Moghavemat, member of the editorial board
of the monthly magazine Kanoun, radio broadcast producer and anti-regime activist. He
also keeps a blog on which he posts news and reports of human rights violations in Iran, as
well as his essays, poems and photographs of various protests and gatherings held in
Switzerland in opposition to the Iranian regime. He also claims that this blog has been
blocked by the Iranian courts.
5.5
Lastly, the complainant makes reference to the physical and psychological torture
that he suffered during his arrest and imprisonment, which were particularly severe as a
result of his being both a Kurd and a Sunni. He also refers to his being diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder in 2014 as a result of that torture. He submits that if he were to be
returned to Iran, he would be forced to confess to espionage and cooperation with Western
intelligence agencies and would be subjected to further torture by the Iranian regime.
22
8
The complainant states that one of his relatives held a senior position in the Revolutionary Court of
Tehran.
GE.18-12643