Uitgezette asielzoeker die marteling na terugkeer claimde liegt volgens rechter maar overheid en deskundigen zitten ook fout.

De meeste Nederlandse uitspraken lezen als gortdroog ambtelijk taalgebruik die je echter snel kunt scannen. De Britse daarentegen vergen wel even aandachtig lezen maar daarbij heb je het gevoel dat de rechter als persoon (gaat ook in de ik-vorm) rechtstreeks tegen je spreekt.

Ook wij in Nederland hebben wel eens te maken met uitgezette illegalen die bij terugkeer in het land van herkomst met Nederland contact opnemen en verslag doen van hun bevindingen. En waarbij dan de vraag rijst of ze wel de waarheid spreken. In deze Britse zaak is een meneer uitgezet naar land X. Volgens hem is hij bij terugkeer gemarteld omdat er in zijn bagage zijn lidmaatschapskaart van een organisatie werd aangetroffen. Tijdens zijn verblijf in Engeland heeft hij meermalen gelogen en documenten vervalst. Toen hij zou worden uitgezet wilde hij niet zijn spullen inpakken dus dat hebben mensen van het detentiecentrum voor hem gedaan. Ze hadden eerst in hun verslag staan dat ze documenten hadden ingepakt maar dat er "uitgekopieerd". Meneer zegt dat hij tijdens de vlucht meermale heeft gevraagd of zijn documenten ook waren ingepakt. Maar in het verslag van de escorts waarin allerlei kleine triviale dingen zijn opgenomen wordt dat niet gemeld. Als bewijs van zijn marteling heeft hij foto's overgelegd en een verklaring van een medisch expert die echter rammelt. Ook de foto's zijn onverklaarbaar op andere momenten gemaakt. Bovendien zijn zijn verklaringen volgens de onderzoekende rechter tegenstrijdig. Hij levert ook een tekening aan (zegt hij maar is een computeranimatie).Oftewel in deze zaak wordt er door meerdere partijen er stevig op los gelogen of meegehuild met de wolven.

Hier staat de volledige uitspraak http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2013/3453.html
Ik zal u het nietsontzienende eindoordeel van de behandelende rechter echter niet onthouden. Leugens, corruptie, vervalsing, partijdigheid van deskundigen alles komt langs. Veel leesplezier maar lees vooral ook de hele uitspraak.

2. I now state my conclusions on the evidence. The claimant is a highly intelligent, manipulative, unscrupulous and deceitful person. The history of his dishonesty since his arrival in this country in 2005 until his deportation in 2010 speaks for itself. The fact that he could procure the manufacture of such plausible fake documents as those purportedly emanating from the Ministry of Interior and the National Police speaks volumes about his deceitful skills. On the balance of probabilities I consider that the documents emanating from the organisation are also fake. The absence of the claimant's signature on the membership card is striking. It was also notable that his knowledge of the organisation was decidedly limited.


3. I do not believe that the documents from the organisation were ever sent to the claimant at Brook House. I am prepared to accept that the letter from Wilson's dated 13 October 2010 was within his paperwork there. However I am convinced that the claimant, when he realised that he was at the end of the line, would not have left it within his files of personal correspondence when he knew that if he did not pack his belongings they would be packed for him. Rather, I am convinced that he would have destroyed it, or put it in the bin in his room. I reject the claimant's evidence that he repeatedly asked the escort team to reassure him that the documents had been removed from his luggage. I accept the evidence of the escort team that this request was never once made. This finding of blatant lies by the claimant is very relevant to my assessment of his evidence about what happened shortly afterwards following his arrival in the capital. I am not satisfied that any dangerous or compromising documents of the kind alleged were placed in the claimant's baggage.


4. My principal factual findings are therefore:

i) There was no dangerous or compromising material emanating from or referring to the organisation placed in the claimant's luggage; and
ii) The claimant did not once ask the escort team to remove such material from his luggage.

5. Having considered the matter carefully I do not consider that the claimant has discharged the burden of proof in respect of anything that he says happened to him after his arrival. I am not satisfied that he was detained or tortured. There are, as I have explained, a number of significant discrepancies in the claimant's story and in relation to the taking of the photographs. These, combined with the claimant's general overall lack of credibility, lead me to the conclusion that the burden of proof has not been discharged by the claimant. Of course, I do not doubt that the claimant suffered wounds although how they were inflicted and by whom and with what motive I can only speculate. Having found that the claimant has not satisfied the burden of proof in relation to his case about what happened after his arrival in Country A I do not need to go further and to advance any alternative explanations.


6. I have not been assisted by the expert medical evidence adduced on behalf of the claimant which I find to be both parti pris and sloppy, for the reasons I have already indicated. Experts should be very careful not to go beyond the remit of their expertise. If they do it is inevitable that they are regarded as little better than mercenaries on behalf of their clients. In my opinion experts would be well advised to keep in mind the vivid metaphor of Thorpe LJ in Vernon v Bosley (Expert Evidence) [1998] 1 FLR 297 at 302C:



"'The area of expertise in any case may be likened to a broad street with the plaintiff walking on one pavement and the defendant walking on the opposite one. Somehow the expert must be ever-mindful of the need to walk straight down the middle of the road and to resist the temptation to join the party from whom his instructions come on the pavement."

7. It is agreed by both counsel by reference to high authority that the non-derogable duty under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights is absolute. It is the cornerstone of the convention. The proscription not only extends to the infliction of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment but also to the knowing exposure of people to "a real risk" (as opposed to "a mere possibility") of such mistreatment in the place to which they are sent. The authorities make it clear that the knowledge (which is a key requirement) may be actual or constructive. If the Secretary of State knows or ought to know that in a certain place to which she is sending a failed asylum seeker there is a real risk of mistreatment being meted out then she will be in breach of article 3: see, inter alia, Vilvarajah v UK [1992] 14 EHRR 248 at paras 107 – 113. When a court is assessing the probability of the risk in order to determine on which side of the line the case falls I believe it would do well to bear in mind the words of Lady Hale in the very recent case of Re B (a Child) [2013] UKSC 33 at para 188:



"The reason for adopting a comparatively low threshold of likelihood is clear: some harm is so catastrophic that even a relatively small degree of likelihood should be sufficient to justify the state in intervening to protect the child before it happens, for example from death or serious injury or sexual abuse. But it is clear that Lord Nicholls did not contemplate that a relatively small degree of likelihood would be sufficient in all cases. The corollary of "the more serious the harm, the less likely it has to be" is that "the less serious the harm, the more likely it has to be"."

Torture involves very serious harm both physically and psychologically. Therefore only a relatively small degree of likelihood needs to be shown to engage Article 3.

8. On my factual findings the claimant was not exposed to any risk, let alone a real risk, of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in the circumstances in which he was returned with his personal possessions. In such circumstances it is hardly necessary for me to go further and to express my opinion on the claim to a violation of the right of privacy, or the right to protection of personal data under the European Charter. It is not suggested that the Secretary of State should through her agents have actually read the claimant's personal correspondence to ensure that there was nothing compromising or dangerous within it before packing it up and putting it in his luggage. Rather, it is argued by Mr Westgate QC that the Secretary of State should have engaged in a conversation with the claimant as to whether the belongings packed up by her agents, where he had refused to do so, might contain compromising or damaging material. I simply cannot accept this argument. It involves an interpretation of the convention which is a world away from the prevention of abuses that the framers of the convention originally had in mind. At the end of the day it must not be forgotten that the core complaint against the Secretary of State is that by her agents she did nothing more than to pack up his personal belongings in circumstances where he had refused to do so.


9. In the light of my findings it is not strictly necessary for me to go further and to make findings as to whether the Secretary of State ought to have known that a dire fate might befall someone who is identified as a member of the organisation at the airport of the capital of Country A. The authorities at Tabs 17 and 34 of the bundle of cases (which I do not specify in order to avoid identification of Country A) show that failed asylum seekers with no political profile are at no risk on their return. There is no court country guidance in relation to the organisation. The principal evidence relied on by the claimant (from Mr E2) suffers not only from being hearsay upon hearsay but also from "he would say that wouldn't he" problems in that the principal source of the measures taken against, and the perils faced by, members of the organisation is the organisation itself. The report of Ms E4 can fairly be described as highly tendentious (in the true sense of that word). I agree with the submission of Mr Collins that it is far from clear that the organisation has the profile asserted by the claimant. I am not prepared on the evidence before me to fix the Secretary of State with the constructive knowledge that there was a real risk that a member of the organisation identified as such at the airport would suffer torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.


10. The conduct of the Secretary of State's agents in falsifying the room clearance certificate is corrupt and truly shocking. When agents of the state falsify documents it undermines, if not fatally, then certainly very seriously, the trust of the people in the operation of the rule of law. It makes no difference if, as here, the agents are private contractors to whom the Secretary of State has outsourced her powers. Corruption by state officials is insidious and corrosive and it is the duty of the authorities where it is found to root it out ruthlessly. In judicial review proceedings, where the evidence is almost invariably given on paper and not subject to cross examination (unlike this case), it is especially important that deterrent measures are taken where such conduct is exposed.


11. In this case I am satisfied that there is prima facie evidence of the offence of forgery and I direct that a copy of this judgment be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions along with the relevant documents. Further, to make a false witness statement is a contempt of court. Proceedings for such contempt are a matter for the Attorney General, and I direct that this judgment and the relevant papers be sent to him also.


12. However, my finding as to the turpitude of the agents of the Secretary of State does not affect at all my overall findings as to the lack of credibility of the claimant. Further, the fact that some officials at Brook House have behaved disgracefully does not alter my assessment of the truthfulness of the escort team.


13. For all these reasons the claim is dismissed.

In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context.