Information Note on the Court’s case-law 68

October 2004

Said v. the Netherlands (dec.) - 2345/02

Decision 5.10.2004 [Section II]

Article 3

Expulsion

Expulsion to Eritrea, entailing alleged risk of inhuman treatment for having deserted during military service and criticised army officials: admissible

The applicant is an Eritrean national who arrived in the Netherlands in 2001 and applied for asylum. He alleged that in 1998, during the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, there was a general mobilisation and he was called up to serve in the army. After the war had ended in 2000, the troops were not demobilised and he continued in service. During a meeting of the applicant’s battalion, he voiced criticism of the higher echelons of the army. A few months later, when he had forgotten about the event, he was detained in an underground cell for five months for having incited other soldiers during that meeting. He managed to escape from the army in 2001, and arrived in the Netherlands via Sudan and Belgium. His asylum application was rejected by the Deputy Minister of Justice, who found that his account lacked credibility. The Regional Court dismissed the applicant’ s appeal and request for further investigation. It considered it unlikely that the army would still have been mobilised when the applicant claimed to have fled, and did not consider it necessary to hear the applicant’s witness. The applicant lodged a furth er appeal to the Council of State, which he subsequently withdrew. Several country reports on Eritrea (including by the Dutch authorities and Amnesty International) indicate that persons caught for deserting or protesting against the military services are frequently tortured and arbitrarily detained.

Admissible under Articles 2 and 3: the applicant could not be reproached for having withdrawn his appeal to the State Council, given that it stood no prospects of success.

© Council of Europe/European Court o f Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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