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Amex, 20.07.2003 12:46
Mr. Mahmood (not his real name) is a 37 year old Libyan who was arrested by the security forces in
February 1999, and who after years of imprisonment and mistreatment made it to the UK in the hope
to be granded political asylum.
Unfortunately, to this day, the British authorities have failed in their international obligations to grant
Mr. Mahmood asylum and to enable him to start a new life, despite Mr. Mahmood carrying unarguably
the proof of a difficult existence in Lybia's jails - his own body.
Early May of this year Mr Mahmood was seeking legal representation to appeal the ministry's negative
decision in front of the tribunal.
Despite having grounds for an appeal, his case was turned down by the legal firms.
His tribunal appeal date was set for 15 May.
Mr. Mahmood gave detailed account of his ordeal in his home country. He was arrested in February 1999
from the house of a neighbour, an Imam, whom he visited regularly. He was taken to the offices of the
security forces where he was left for several hours before being questioned, threatend, insulted, slapped,
punched, and hit with batons.
On that same night he was blindfolded and taken to a detention centre. There he was put into a dark, dirty, bare
cell measuring perhaps 2m x 1m. There was nothing to use as a toilet, and when he was given food it was of poor quality.
On the third day he was taken out, stripped naked, and beaten for about three hours.
He was then questioned, beaten further, and his face was held repeatedly under water.
He was suspended upside down in some piping that smelt as though it led to the sewers. He was given his clothes
back, taken back to his cell, and given a pen and a piece of paper and told to write a list of names.
A few days later, some guards came into his cell, questioned and threatend him. They kicked him and hit him severely.
About five days after this he was taken out, questioned and ill treated again. He was then moved to a different part of the
detention centre where he spent about five months in a larger cell.
Eventually he was moved back to the first part of the detention centre where he spent about another two years.
It was difficult for him to keep track of the passing of time. On about ten further occasions he was taken out,
questioned, beaten, suspended, and his face immersed repeatedly in water. Every five to ten days he was questioned
and assaulted in his cell. On one of the occasions he was hit so hard on the back that he was unable to stand up for
about two weeks.
He was released in August 2002 at the time of a general amnesty. Mr Mahmood thinks that he was mistaken for another
man with a similar name. Soon afterwards he heard that the security forces were looking for him, so he left the country.
The London-based Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Turture assessed his case and found that the scars on
his body are fully consistent with Mr. Mahmood's account of being tortured.
Especially the Medical Foundation found,
- that Mr Mahmood's thickened nose supports his account of being broken in detention
- that the 2 cm scar on the back of his head is consistent with his claims of being beaten
- that 4 scars around his chest (7cm, 5cm, 4cm and 2cm long) are the result of a rash developed
in detention due to the poor hygiene.
- that the 4cm scar on the top of his foot can be attributed to the rope cutting into his foot when
he was suspended.
Despite all this evidence, the adjudicator for the ministry of interior refused to grant asylum to Mr. Mahmood.
His adverse credibility findings are based on unexplained facts in Mr. Mahmood's account, but since there
was no presenting officer during the asylum asessment interview between Mr. Mahmood and the adjudicator,
it is unclear wheter the adjudicator sought clarification from Mr Mahmood.
Mr Mahmood does not speak any english.
The adjudicator also chose to disregard the medical report by the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture,
and gives no reasons for his decision, nor does he explain to what he attributes Mr. Mahmood's scars.
...Objective evidence does show that people held in detention are tortured....
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read also:
"Torture victims under threat from UK proposals"
Torture victims/survivors are under real threat from the UK's proposal for off-shore asylum processing...
http://www.torturecare.org.uk/news13.htm
for more info:
Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
http://www.torturecare.org.uk/
Leeds Refugee Legal Centre
http://www.refugee-legal-centre.org.uk/
Amex
Afghan war criminal Zardad Khan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3070795.stm
Akena Adoko, head of Milton Obote's murder squad
http://www.adoko.multiservers.com/
If the immigration system can't discriminate between victims of torture and perpetrators of torture, it needs to be reformed.
reform immigration now!
It is simply impossible for an official here (in other countries too) to decide wheather a refugee is a genuine asylum seeker or not.
The complete evaluation -- asylum seeker "YES or NO" -- is brutal and unfair.
Werner
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