CAT/C/78/D/1052/2021 Advance unedited version
of young men, and the Maluku mass grave which was discovered in March 2015. The
complainant was personally motivated to carry out this investigation because both her sibling
and boyfriend were arrested during protests against President Kabila in January 2015 and
have never been found.
2.2
In February 2016, the complainant started to receive threatening phone calls and text
messages from unknown numbers in which she was told not to present her reports to the
ministry and to “act like other people” or she would be killed. On 20 February 2016, the
complainant was leaving her home when she was stopped by three men who forced her into
a car where a fourth man was waiting. When the complainant asked the men to identify
themselves, one of them showed that he was hiding a firearm under his shirt. The complainant
was taken to an unknown location.
2.3
The complainant was taken to a dark room with four men, where she was beaten and
threatened. One of the men mentioned that the complainant had been defending the oppressed
but would now need to defend herself. The leader of this group of men ordered the others to
tie the complainant up and raped her. The complainant was later taken to a cell with eight
women and two men. She noted that at least one woman was also a human rights activist and
that among the prisoners there were young people interested in politics. The complainant was
kept in the cell for five or six days, without adequate amounts of food or access to medical
care or sanitation. Three Swahili-speaking guards took turns to beat and rape her and the
other women in separate cells. The two men who were in the cell upon her arrival were
tortured and eventually killed. The complainant assumes that the group that was holding her
captive was linked to the authorities, as they spoke Swahili and used many nicknames and
codes in their communication.
2.4
The complainant managed to escape the detention with the help of one of the guards
who, at the moment when he was about to rape her, realized that they had the same family
name. According to the complainant, the guard decided not to rape his “sister”, but to help
her escape. The complainant was returned to the cell, and the guard told her that it is important
to know who she is dealing with and that it is very difficult to leave the place she was detained
in alive. The guard later returned and led her out of the building, into a car, in which another
man was sitting in the driver’s seat. The complainant was requested to lie down on the floor
and was covered with a carpet. Subsequently, she was brought to a big, mansion-like
building, and was introduced to a human rights activist who advised her to leave the country.
The guard that rescued her told her that she was in good hands. The complainant never found
out the real identity of this guard, apart from the nickname “B52” that the other men used
during her detention.
2.5
On 27 February 2016, the complainant was asked by the activist to accompany him
and two other men to the N’djili airport. The complainant voiced her concern about the risks
of leaving the country through an airport. The activist arranged a meeting between the
complainant and two men, who were dressed as immigration officers. The two men had a
conversation with the activist in English, which the complainant did not understand. On 28
February 2016, at around 3:00 am, the complainant was given a French passport and was told
to present herself as a French woman from Ivory Coast. She later boarded an aircraft with the
passport without a problem and noticed that the activist was on the same airplane. The
complainant was told by the activist that the flight was heading to Moscow, Russia, but that
the intention was to eventually arrange a trip for her to Canada. The complaint did not feel
safe in Russia, travelled from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, and subsequently left for Finland
by train.
2.6
The complainant applied for asylum in Finland on 19 March 2016. The Finnish
Immigration Service (FIS) interviewed her on two occasions in April 2016. The interviews
were relatively short, lasting less than two hours the first time and just a little longer the
second time. In May 2017, the FIS arranged new interviews for the complainant, again on
two different occasions. During these four interviews, the complainant explained her
experiences in detail. During the interviews organized in 2016, the complainant was crying
while explaining her experiences. She declared several times that she was suffering from both
psychological and physical symptoms. She had a male lawyer appointed ex officio, who did
not show up during any of her interviews. In May 2016, a lawyer sent a short email to correct
some sentences in one of the declarations. In 2017, another male attorney from a public legal
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