CCPR/C/120/D/2601/2015 party submits, but it is the leading group in opposition to the Shia Government. He adds that some members of the tribe have joined ISIL. Therefore, any Shia Muslim and the Shia Government would perceive any member of the Dulaimy tribe as a dangerous enemy. 5.4 Moreover, ISIL has largely conquered large Anbar Province west of Baghdad, and people named Dulaimy from Anbar who are displaced and have sought refuge are prevented from crossing the bridge that connects Anbar with Baghdad. The author adds that there are currently about 85 Shia militias in Iraq, of which 23 are criminal and lawless. Those militias often operate with impunity against Sunnis as they are outside any government control.11 5.5 The author reiterates that, in addition to being a member of the Dulaimy tribe, 12 his prominent position derives from the fact that he was well known in his neighbourhood, New Baghdad, where he lived and had his carpentry workshop for 23 years before fleeing in 2002. 5.6 When in Denmark, he was also a familiar figure among the Iraqis. In 2009, when about 100 Iraqis sought protection in Brorson’s Church in Copenhagen for three months, some 25,000 postcards were distributed with his picture and the text “Would you send M. back to Iraq?”, to support the plight of Iraqi asylum seekers. He was then the subject of several interviews in leading newspapers and his story was reproduced in two books, Kirkeasyl (Church Asylum) and De Afviste (The Rejected), written by the leading newspaper journalist, Anton Geist. The author further notes that he was the main character in a satirical video production to support the Iraqi case which was posted on YouTube and which has been watched some 20,000 times (“Harry: you must not think of Baghdad”). 5.7 Regarding the State party’s claim that he only provided new information on his family situation in 2012, 10 years after he first entered into Denmark, the author submits that, after the brutal clearing of Brorson’s Church by the Danish police on the night of 13 to 14 August 2009, the author, an old and prudent man, felt the need to stay away from the Danish authorities for some time. 5.8 While the family lived in Sadr City (eastern Baghdad), the author’s sister B. was probably the best-known member of the family. She was a respected and active member of the Baath Party and a long-time career government official. She served as the head of the secretariat of the health minister for several years prior to 2003 and was in contact with a number of prominent politicians under the Saddam Hussein regime. In the family house, she was an adviser to a large number of neighbours, making the house known as a Sunni bastion and a place of contact with those in power before 2003. B. was dismissed in 2003, after the fall of the regime. She and the family fled to the Syrian Arab Republic. Despite being in generally good health, B. fell ill upon return to Iraq in 2010, probably because of a small ulcer, and she was hospitalized in Baghdad. The day after, she was declared dead “for medical reasons”, as stated officially. A closer examination of the cause of death was not requested, as it might have been too dangerous. The author claims that when the Shias were in power in Iraq in 2010, someone in the health-care system or from a Shia militia decided to kill his sister. He admits that “nothing of course can be proved, but it is wrong for the Board not to attribute any significance to those events”. The author concludes that it would be dangerous for him to go back to Baghdad when “an unexpected death can hit his immediate family under highly suspicious circumstances”. 5.9 The author also submits that further to the expropriation of his two plots of land in a Shia-dominated area by the Shia-dominated Government after 2003, he had to turn to the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark to request compensation for the lands seized. As a result, he is well known to the Embassy. He claims that it is likely that he would disappear or die for “medical reasons” so that his compensation request would cease without settlement. He also submits that the headquarters of the Shia militia leader Hakim Al-Zameli is based only 100 metres from his family home and that the militia’s headquarters is reputed to be a place where torture, imprisonment, murder and disappearance take place. Moreover, Mr. Al11 12 6 Amnesty International, Absolute Impunity. In this regard, the author claims that being a member of the Dulaimy tribe did not represent a risk until 2002.