BALABOUMUTOMBO V SWITZERLAND

BALABOUMUTOMBO V SWITZERLAND Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work produced by our Law Essay Writing Service . You can view samples of our professional work here . BALABOUMUTOMBO V SWITZERLAND CONSISTENT TENSE!!!!!!; the court Facts The Applicant, BalabouMatombo, was a Zairian citizen born in 1961. Heclaimed to have been a member of the Zairian Armed Forces since 1982. In 1988, in response to feelings of discrimination based on his Luba ethnicity, the Applicant secretly joined a political movement Union pour la dà ©mocratieet le progrà ¨s social (UDPS), of which his father was allegedly also a member.The Applicant attended several illegal meetings and demonstrations organized by UDPS. On 20 June 1989, the Applicant was arrested by three members of the Division Spà ©cialePrà ©sidentielle while delivering a letter from his father to a founding member and leader of UDPS named Mr. Etienne Tshisekedi.The Applicant was detained in a military establishment and locked in a one square metre cell, where he was subjected to electric shocks, beaten with a rifle, and his testicles were bruised until he lost consciousness. This torture continued for fou r days. On 24 June 1989, the Applicant was brought before a military tribunal, found guilty of conspiracy against the State and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.He was transferred to a military prison, where he was detained for seven months without receiving medical attention for serious injuries sustained in his interrogation prior to the tribunal hearing. Hewas released on 20 January 1990 under the condition that he presented himself twice a week at the Auditoratmilitaire of Mantete. He sought medical treatment in February 1990 for his eye injury at the General Hospital Mama Yemo. For fear of further injury, and of exposing other members of the UDPSto threats of similar treatment from the Government by virtue of their contact with him, the Applicant left Zaire for Angola, leaving his family, including two children. He stayed in Angola for three months with a friend.The Applicantlater left Angola for Italy, where he arrived on 29 July 1990 using a friend’s passport . On 7 August 1990, the Applicant illegally crossed the border to enter Switzerland.On 8 August 1990, he applied for recognition in Switzerland as a refugee. Hesoon learned that his father had been detained after his departure. The Applicant was heard by the Cantonal Office for Asylum Seekers at Lausanne on 10 October 1990. He presented medical documents from Swiss medical practitioners indicating that the injuries he had corresponded with the alleged torture sustained in June 1989. The Federal Refugee Office (Office fà ©dà ©ral des rà ©fugià ©s) rejected the Applicant’s application for asylum on 31 January 1992,and he was instructed to leave Switzerland.This decision was subsequently appealed a number of times on the ground that the authorities had not sufficiently taken into account essential documents, such as a report of Amnesty International and medical reports. The appeals were rejected. The rejection of the application was based partly on the following: it was unli kely that the Applicant had been imprisoned at a military prison for political reasons. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had visited the prison in November 1989, had stated that he apparently did not belong to the category of prisoners which fell under the mandate of ICRC that being prisoners of war and interned civilians, and â€Å"security† or â€Å"political† detainees; and