CAT/C/64/D/730/2016
2.23 Also on 7 July 2014, the complainant wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs to
report the abuse perpetrated by the police officer V.T., but on 21 July 2014 she was
informed that her complaint had been forwarded to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
2.24 On 1 October 2015, the complainant went to the main police station in Tbilisi to file
a complaint against staff at the Human Rights Centre. However, during questioning, the
police officers allegedly distorted her words and threatened her. On 18 October 2015, she
reported the threats to the internal complaints department, which did not take any action.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant claims that her forcible return to Nigeria would constitute a breach
by Georgia of article 3 of the Convention, insofar as she fears becoming a victim of torture
or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment at the hands of the Nigerian
authorities. She also fears for her life upon her return and being arbitrarily arrested.
3.2
The complainant also fears that the Nigerian authorities will carry out the many
threats against her life and integrity received in Mali and the United Arab Emirates, because
of her intervention for the rights of the women arrested in Mali and forcibly returned to
Nigeria. She also requests the State party to protect her from further attacks and provide her
with urgent medical treatment in order to treat her cancer. She alleges torture and
brutalization at the reception centre.
3.3
The complainant submits that the Ministry intentionally jeopardized her asylum
claim as a retaliatory measure by providing and using falsified and irrelevant information to
decide on her claim and by omitting the factual circumstances and essential evidence that
prove that the Government of Nigeria was and is a danger to her life. The Supreme Court
dismissed her appeal citing an amendment to the Code of Administrative Procedure in
Georgia. That amendment had become effective three months earlier and the complainant
argues that the purpose of that change was to harm her. According to the complainant, the
Tbilisi Court of Appeal also violated the time limit to decide on her claim, because it took it
six months rather than five days to write the verdict. This has allegedly prevented her from
filing an appeal and obtaining a decision from the Supreme Court before the change of the
law. The courts have also deliberately ignored the corroborative facts that she presented in
support of her request for asylum and did not take into account the general situation in her
country of origin.
3.4
Invoking articles 12 and 13 of the Convention, the complainant contests the absence
of an official investigation into her allegations of acts of torture by an official named L. at
the Martkopi Reception Centre. Instead of protecting her from further attacks, as a
retaliatory measure for having complained to the Office of the Public Defender, the police
department sent police officer V.T. to brutally attack and rape her on 14 and 28 August
2013.
3.5
The complainant accuses the State party of causing her cancer and preventing her
from getting the life-saving medical treatment that she needs. She also accuses the State
party of: blocking all her correspondence; not providing her with food and heating; not
allowing her to make bank transactions;9 blocking her access to the Internet; deliberately
delaying her monthly allowance from a UNHCR project; seizing the funds for clothing
provided by UNHCR; carrying out an illegal search of her apartment; poisoning her;
interfering with her right of association with other people; and intercepting and deleting her
emails. She also claims that she is followed whenever she leaves her apartment. She also
declares that the Public Defender of Georgia is corrupt and covers up torture and
discrimination against her.
3.6
The complainant also submits that UNHCR staff in Tbilisi were fully aware of the
abuse suffered by asylum seekers at the Martkopi Reception Centre and were complicit in
covering up the brutal attacks. She affirms that UNHCR in Georgia is a very corrupt
organization, which has violated its mandate to protect and do no harm and which carries
9
6
She alleges that she is considered a terrorist because “Western Governments have Nigeria on their list
of terrorist countries not allowed to make bank transactions”.