20.12.2014 Public trial

11:00 VG K 114.13AAdi K.

Legal RepresentativeRepresented by the Federal

Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Office for Migration and

Refugees- Asylum court –

- Main Law -

Mr. K, you are probably not familiar with how trials work, so I’ll start by explaining how this

will proceed.Firstly, I am going to read out parts of your file and ask you

questions about it. Afterwards we will discuss the legal

implications.This trial is open to

the public for reasons

of transparency.

You entered Germany in 2011 and had a hearing at the Federal Office in October 2011. You are from Ghazni province; your

father is dead. You escaped to Iran, traveled to Turkey and from there you took a

truck to Germany. You fled because of persecution. In Ghazni you ran a sports

club. You were threatened and abducted. You were ransomed and released, but could no

longer stay in your country. Your application for asylum was rejected.

The reason: you traveled to Germany overland via a third country. The Federal Office did

not believe your account to be credible.

You appealed the decision in 2012.

Is there anything you would like to add?

Well, asylum claims are often rejected. Often, the basis of the rejection does not even comprise an entire sentence. We know how these things are handled at the Federal Office.

Yes, the protocol is vague and lacks

detail.

And if one reads the file, one will note that no questions were raised.

Judge

Mr. A, please tell us why you left

Afghanistan.

I opened a sports club. I believe in sports. I wanted

to bring sports to young people. All kinds of people

came to my club. Normal people as well as soldiers, including foreign soldiers. One day, two individuals came into my club. They were Taliban. They didn‘t like the music or the naked pictures on the wall. They urged me to close the club.

Judge:Naked pictures?

Interpreter:By “naked”, he means posters with naked upper bodies.

Judge:Why do you think they were Taliban?

Plaintiff:Because of their reaction to the pictures. Nobody else made a fuss about these pictures.

Judge:What did they say? How did they threaten you?

Plaintiff:They told me that I had to close the club.

Judge:And how did you reply?

Plaintiff:I told them that the club is my job - what else am I supposed to do?

Judge:I still do not see how they threatened you.

They told me that they would kill me and my family.

It took some time for you to put

it that way.

Maybe I didn‘t fully understand the question. I am also very nervous.

Yes, I can

understand that.

Judge

Plaintiff

The Taliban came back to the club two days later. I

wasn‘t there. They came to my house at night and grabbed

me straight away; I screamed and then my father came. They

grabbed us both, blindfolded us and drove off with us. When they took my

blindfold off I found I was in a basement. They had

separated me from my father. I was alone in the basement. For the first fifteen days, a

man came in and beat me.

Were you interrogated?

Yes. They wanted to know who visited my club and who I worked for. They believed I was a spy. At the end of the first

fifteen days they told me that the Mullah had said that they should kill us.

I threw myself down before the

man’s feet and begged him to

let us live.

Judge

When the man came back, he told me that I had to arrange a ransom of 1.5 million Afghanis.

I took a piece of paper and wrote a message to

my mother.

Within four days the man had received the money from my

mother. He blindfolded me and led me away. He told me that I

should leave the country.

I drove to a friend’s house in He-rat. I called my mother from there. She told me that they had killed my father and that I could

not come home.

Did she say when all of this had taken place?

The plaintiff covers his face with his hands. The judge suspends the hearing.

They burned it.

Do you know what happened to your

club?

Judge:Can you describe where you were being held?

Plaintiff:A typical basement in an old building.

Judge:Was it always the same man who visited you?

Plaintiff:Yes, it was always the same man who beat me and brought me food.

Judge:Did you ask about your father when they released you?

Plaintiff:The man said, “First you leave, then your father.”

Did you believe they were going to release your father?

Yes, I believed them.

Plaintiff

Judge

“Yes, I believed them.”

Judge:Do you think they kept the money for themselves?

Plaintiff:Maybe.

We can only assume that they did.

Judge:How long did you run the club? Were there any other sports clubs in town?

Plaintiff:For 6 years. Yes, there were others.

Judge:Why did these people suddenly appear after 6 years? What do you think?

You don‘t have

to answerif you don‘t know.

Plaintiff:Because the security in town got worse.

Judge:What do you mean?

Plaintiff:They couldn‘t come earlier because foreign soldiers were there.

Judge:Is your mother still being threatened?

Plaintiff:She left our house and lives with my sister.

Last question: what do you think will happen if you go

back?

The Taliban will kill me.

But you had gone to Herat. Do you think the Taliban would search for

you there?

Yes. Because

the Taliban

are every-where.

Judge:At the Federal Office you said you came from a very wealthy family. What is your family’s economic status now? Did your mother sell everything?

Plaintiff:My mother kept some of the properties.

As I read your protocols, many things were unclear to me. I had my doubts. But today you have told us a lot and in detail.

Many things are much clearer now- things I did not understand in

the very brief protocol.However, I still do not

understand why you are wanted all over the country. You also said that your economic status is not

that bad. Why can you not live in Kabul?

Because the Taliban are everywhere.

In Afghanistan, they don‘t have the level of autonomy that we have here in Germany. News travels quickly; it is very difficult to hide there. It would not be long before many people knew that he was back

in the country.

You filed four applications. The first for asylum cannot be granted pursuant to

section 16, because you traveled to Germa-ny overland via a third country. (1)The second was for refugee status

pursuant to section 3a (2), the third for subsidiary protection (3). One could cite religion in a case such as yours: you could be in danger because you are a opponent of the Taliban and their

religious beliefs.If all of this proves unsuccessful, there is one last possibility: a country-based

prohibition. But this would contradict the Federal Administrative Court’s decision

that young single men can be deported to Kabul.

(1) Foreigners who travel through a country in the European Union or a secure, third country cannot invoke the right to asylum. (section 16a, paragraph 2, Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (GG)).

(2) A foreigner is a refugee pursuant to the July 28th, 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (BGBl. 1953 II S. 559, 560), if he:1. due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion2. is outside the country of his nationality and a) is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or b) who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such a fear, unwilling to return to it.

(3) Protection according to § 60 Abs. 2, 3, 5 and 7 AufenthG. Subsidiary protection applies to those whose current situation either does not meet the conditions for asylum or who cannot be granted refugee status, although they cannot be deported due to huma-nitarian reasons. This applies if there is a credible danger awaiting the person in the country to which he or she is to be deported.

We will definitely have to thoroughly investigate. But I

need to consider what my

decision will be.

You are a Tajik, which

is a relatively large minority in Afghanistan. Thus you would not stand out there, especially not in a a big city like Kabul

with a population of approximately

4 million.What I am also considering is that your family can live a relatively normal life. Your brother-in-law owns a shop. I have to think about these

things…

The final decision will not be announced at this time and is hereby postponed.

The hearing was concluded at 1:28 PM.

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