Fadel v. Switzerland
Key Judgment
Legal Relevance
Keywords: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction | Burden of Proof | Refugees and Migrants
Themes: Persons and Groups Affected | Related Crimes
The Committee found that the state party had failed to determine whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the victim risked being subjected to torture if he was expelled. The Committee also noted that the victim faced a risk of being arrested and tortured again if returned to his country of origin, where he is regarded as a fugitive, even if the charges against him, the proof of those charges and his conviction in absentia are not known with any certainty. Such risk arises also from widespread acts of impunity for torture and ill-treatment in country’s prisons.
Judgment Date
November 14, 2014
Country
Switzerland
Judicial Body
Committee Against Torture
Articles violated
Article 3 [CTOCIDTP]
Facts of the Case
Mr. Ali Fadel is a Yemeni citizen who had escaped prison and fled to Switzerland on 29 August 2003. He belongs to the low-status Akhdam caste in Yemen, members of which face many forms of discrimination. While in detention in his country of origin, he had been tortured by Yemeni authorities through abuse including severe beatings, sodomy, cigarette burnings, and plunging his head into a container of human urine and excrement. In 2003, Mr. Fadel filed the first application for asylum in Switzerland and in 2009, he submitted the second application for reconsideration. Both applications were turned down and there was issued an order for his deportation in Yemen.