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"They will probably be mistreated and tortured"

Human rights organizations are warning against sending two more Chechen men: "Great danger that they will be tortured and killed, and that the Norwegian authorities make the same fatal mistake again," both the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Russian Memorial say.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

At Trandum there are two Chechen men to be sent out of Norway. Both the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Russian human rights organization Memorial believe they can be tortured and killed if that happens.
"They came in the middle of the night and wore a hood over my head. They used electric shock so I fainted. They used something sharp to rip the nail off my finger, "says" Jonas, "who will remain anonymous because he fears the Chechen authorities may be torturing both him and his family in Chechnya.
"Jonas" has already been sent out of Norway once before. He says that at the time he was taken by Chechen security police and tortured, but that he managed to escape. A report from the National Institute of Public Health states that the injuries he has on his finger correspond to the tearing out of a nail by torture. The report also says that the scar he has on his face corresponds to blunt force on the face. A Russian doctor's statement from 2012 states that he had received blows all over his body, a broken nose, electricity on his fingers and that several nails had been torn out and others tried to be torn off.

Cousin killed. Iznaour also sits on Trandum with final refusal of asylum. He fears it will go with him as it did with his cousin Apti Nazjuyev (see main). The cousin was rejected for his asylum application in Norway, and had to go to 2011. He was found with broken kneecaps, broken skull and missing teeth, dumped in a river.
"They kidnapped my cousin and subjected him to extensive torture. This is what I am most afraid of, if they send me out – that they will not kill me right away, that they will torture me. It is quite common in Chechnya, ”says Iznaour, who worked as a beekeeper before fleeing to Norway.
A doctor's statement from the surgical outpatient clinic at Sykehuset Innlandet ward Gjøvik states that Iznaour has injuries in both shoulders as a result of torture where he was hung up by his hands, which were tied behind his back. He also underwent surgery for these injuries. It is also stated that he has had a weight loss of ten kilos and is struggling with night sweats due to the after-effects of torture. Iznaour had his asylum application processed again, because UNE and the Norwegian authorities got to see the autopsy report after the murder of Apti Nazjujev. The autopsy report states that his cousin died of torture. However, when Iznaour had his case heard by Norwegian law, the court concluded that his cousin Apti Nazjujev had not died of torture. The court's conclusion on the cousin's cause of death is demonstrably a wrong conclusion. UNE has acknowledged that the autopsy report of the cousin is genuine, and on the basis of this, they processed his case again. In November, he was rejected again.

"Great danger of abuse." The human rights organization The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has made statements in the cases of both of the two who sit on Trandum.
"If these are sent back, there is a great danger that they will be tortured again. It does not matter if they are sent to Russia or Chechnya. They can be picked up at the airport in Moscow, tortured and subjected to extensive abuse, and in the worst case die or be killed later, "says Lene Wettestrand, senior adviser in the organization.

Julie Wilhelmsen, NUPI.
Julie Wilhelmsen, NUPI.

Do not believe the explanations. Both Iznaour and "Jonas" have had their asylum applications rejected by the UDI, the Immigration Appeals Board and Norwegian law. "Jonas" won in Oslo District Court, but the state appealed and was upheld in Borgarting Court of Appeal. Neither Norwegian law nor the immigration authorities believe that they are telling the truth.
Senior researcher at NUPI, Julie Wilhelmsen, is critical of the fact that neither the immigration authorities nor the court believe what the Helsinki Committee and the Russian cooperation organization Memorial say. "I think that is completely strange. It is very difficult to get solid information about what is going on in Chechnya. There are almost no organizations or others working on the ground there. Memorial has done this for 30 years in Chechnya, and is so credible that they have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times – most recently by Erna Solberg in 2012, "says Wilhelmsen.
A statement from the Memorial states that ten different witnesses in Chechnya with whom the organization has been in contact confirm that Iznaour will be in danger of being sent back to Russia or Chechnya. Memorial also believes that it is true that both "Jonas" and Iznaour have been tortured before, and that there is a great danger that it may happen again.

Listens to the Helsinki Committee. The documents from the UDI, the Immigration Appeals Board and the trials emphasize that both Iznaour and "Jonas" have changed their explanations during the process. It is emphasized that both have said new things that they did not say in the asylum interviews. Based on this, both are found unreliable. The Immigration Appeals Board and section chief Torgeir Tofte Jørgensen answer on behalf of the Norwegian immigration authorities about the case to Iznaour:

"This is what I am most afraid of, if they send me out – that they will not kill me at once, that they will torture me."

"We have made a future-oriented assessment, and have looked at whether he may be at risk of persecution upon return. We have come to the conclusion that he can return. It is also not safe for Chechens in general to return, and therefore he can return to Chechnya. "
What do you think about the fact that Memorial thinks it's not safe for him?
"Memorial statements have been assessed against information from Landinfo, Iznaour's own explanation and other documentation in the case. We have arrived at an overall assessment based on this, and found that he is not credible. "
Do you view Memorial's statements as credible?
"I can not go into a single statement and say whether it is credible or not. They are assessed and weighted against other information, "says Tofte Jørgensen.

"Have not seen a doctor's statement." When asked what the Immigration Appeals Board thinks about the National Institute of Public Health's report on the torn nail of "Jonas", the section leader answers as follows:
"This is an explanation he did not give during the asylum interview, and it is an explanation he has not given to the Immigration Appeals Board."
The statement of the section leader is in contrast to the tribunal's own documents. The Immigration Appeals Board's final asylum refusal dated 27 April 2015 states that they have seen the report, and that they have no doubt that "Jonas" has the injuries on his finger. But they point out that the report from the National Institute of Public Health can not establish how the injuries occurred, only that they correspond to the explanation of torture. It further states that the Immigration Appeals Board cannot see that tearing off nails is a common torture method in Chechnya. Both the Memorial, the Helsinki Committee and exile politician Akhmed Zakyaev say that pulling nails is a widespread method of torture in Chechnya. The autopsy report of Apti Nazjujev stated that he was tortured before death occurred, and that he lacked nails. The Amnesty report "Effects of torture among Chechen refugees in Norway" also describes the removal of nails as a known method of torture in Chechnya.

Tortured, and struggling with memory. Jostein Løken works in the law firm Elden and represents Iznour. He explains Iznour's various messages to the Immigration Appeals Board and the court as follows:
"He has complex psychological damage that comes from torture and persecution by the authorities in his home country. This means that he has a diagnosis that makes it very difficult for him to explain himself in a chronological and ordinary way. There is a lot of clutter, and he remembers poorly, "says Løken.
In several psychological assessments, including at the District Psychiatric Center (DPS) in Lillehammer, it is established that Iznaour suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has memory loss. His records show that he has been admitted to psychiatric treatment several times. Lawyer Løken believes this has not been taken into account. "It is highly reprehensible that it is emphasized that he is messy in his explanation, while the strong documentation is ignored," says the Elden lawyer.
Memorial says that Iznour was taken by Russian security police immediately after he got off the plane.

Jumped off the train. Ny Tid was informed shortly before the deadline that Iznaour had been sent out of Norway. Memorial says they sent representatives to the airport to receive Iznaour, and to monitor the process and prevent torture or abduction. The memorial further states that Iznour was taken by the Russian security police (FSB) immediately after he got off the plane. Iznaour has told the family that he was banned from staying in Moscow and Russia by the FSB, and that he was ordered to take the train to Chechnya. According to the family, he was told that he would be met by Chechen police on arrival and questioned again.
Ny Tid has also spoken to a Chechen woman who was refused asylum and was sent to Moscow from Norway in October. She wishes to remain anonymous due to fears that her family in Chechnya will be persecuted. The woman says over the phone that when she landed at the airport in Moscow, she was taken by the FSB and questioned for several hours about the Chechen environment in Norway and what she knows about who. She says that the FSB banned her from staying in Russia, and that they made it clear that she would be forcibly sent to Chechnya if she did not travel herself. The mother of a small child says that she has escaped from Russia, and is now in another European country.
Iznaour's family tells Ny Tid that he jumped off the train on his way to Chechnya. He is now under cover at an unknown address somewhere in Russia. "Jonas" is scheduled to be sent out during December.

Because Iznaour is on the run, the full name and picture of Iznaour are withheld.

See legal action from UNE processed by PFU.

Øystein Windstad
Øystein Windstad
Former journalist at Ny Tid.

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