may be that the police and the prosecutor reopen the
investigation.
Counsel's comments
8.1 Counsel contends that the police interviewed the author
but had only a brief telephone conversation with the bank. No
detailed investigation, for example about the requirements
concerning Danish citizens living abroad, was carried out. The
police did not at all examine whether the case amounted to
indirect discrimination within the meaning of the Convention.
The Committee, however, stressed the duty of States parties to
duly investigate reported incidents of racial discrimination in
its concluding observations regarding communication 4/1991.
8.2 The State party states that the requirement of Danish
citizenship was only to be seen in connection with the
assessment of the ties with Denmark of the person applying for
a loan in correlation, therefore, with the possibilities of
subsequent judicial recovery of the amount of the loan in case
of default. Counsel underlines that such reason was not
mentioned by the credit manager of Sparbank Vest, as reflected
in the police report. The report says that the police assistant
E.P. had contacted the credit director of Sparbank Vest who
was of the opinion that the bank had not done anything illegal
in connection with the loan application in question, since all
applicants signed the same type of application form with the
formulation Athat I am a Danish citizen. The bank did not
mention any particular reason for its practice. It did not, in
particular, declare that there was a requirement of residence
due to the possibility of enforcing claims against debtors. It
appears, therefore, that the reason in question had been made
up by the police in Skive on their own initiative. Even if the
reason came from the bank itself it appears to be highly
irrelevant for an evaluation of whether the requirements of the
Convention have been met.
8.3 It is clear that Danish citizenship is not a guarantee for
subsequent judicial recovery of the defaulted amount if the
Danish citizen lives, for example, in Tunisia. The application of
a criterion of citizenship for the reason given by the police
would indeed be a serious indication that indirect
discrimination on grounds prohibited by the Convention had
taken place. The possibilities of subsequent judicial recovery
would rather justify a criterion of residence. However, with
respect to such criterion counsel draws the attention of the