CAT/C/52/D/466/2011 police with information regarding the complainant’s political activities. As a consequence, on 1 April 1983, he was arrested and subjected to torture by the police while in detention.1 In 1988, the Supreme Court sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment. However, in 1991, he was released on parole on the condition that he stop his political activities and undertake not to change residence for six years and seven months. He did not comply and, instead of starting his military service, he moved to the Adana area, where many Kurds lived, and began working for a political organization arranging activities for the PRK.2 In the period 1991–1994, he was the PRK representative in Adana. In 1991, he attended a PRK conference in Greece. In the meantime, his family received convocations for the complainant to perform his military service and return to the area he was assigned to after his release in 1991. It appears that, at that point in time, it was possible for the complainant to travel across Turkey, on his own identity documents, without risking arrest for evading military service or failing to reside in the assigned area. According to him, a person could be searched, arrested and punished only if wanted for political reasons. 2.2 In 1994, the authorities started to arrest PRK members in large cities. In Istanbul, they discovered archives containing names of PRK members, including reports about the complainant’s political activities. As he had become wanted by the authorities, the party decided to send him, with false identity documents, to Romania, in November 1994. The trip between Turkey and Romania lasted about nine hours. His parents and siblings remained in Turkey. 2.3 In Romania, the complainant was received by party members and his elder brother, a Swedish resident running a business in Romania. In 1997, the complainant was arrested and he immediately requested asylum. On 13 August 1997, he was recognized as a refugee, on the grounds of his PRK membership since 1976, his detention between 1983 and 1991 in Turkey and his ill-treatment in detention. Amnesty International became aware of his case through his brother and the PRK. The complainant was married in Romania and had a child; he also ran a successful business there. 2.4 In October or November 1999, the complainant represented the PRK at a large party conference in Romania. Turkish intelligence agents, who also attended the conference, threatened to kill him or abduct him and bring him back to Turkey. Thereafter, the complainant was once stopped and once attacked in Bucharest, but he managed to escape. He subsequently contacted the police but they could not help him, for lack of evidence. According to him, the Turkish intelligence service had good opportunities to obtain information about him from the Romanian authorities, as they cooperated well together. Feeling threatened, the complainant obtained a visa for the Netherlands, where his sister lived. In 2001, he flew to the Netherlands for 17 days. He did not request asylum there as he feared being returned to Romania. 2.5 On an unspecified date in 2001, he travelled to Denmark. On 19 June 2001, 10 days after his arrival, he requested asylum there, claiming that he would risk imprisonment and torture if returned to Turkey, because of his political activities and non-performance of military service. 2.6 On 26 July 2002, the Danish Immigration Service rejected his asylum request, for lack of credibility, without ordering a medical examination regarding the complainant’s 1 2 See para. 2.6 below; according to the Danish Refugee Appeals Board decision of 28 June 2006, on file, he was arrested and sentenced for armed robbery. As per the complainant’s submission before the Appeals Board in 2002, he informed PRK members of the party’s politics and they subsequently recruited new party members. As per his submission before the Appeals Board in 2006, he informed Kurds about the Kurdish liberation fight and recruited new party members. 3