ECtHR - Ahmed v. Austria, Application No. 25964/94, 17 December 1996

The case originated in an application lodged by a Somali citizen, with the Commission against Austria on 13 December 1994, alleging a breach of Austria’s obligations under Art. 3 ECHR in the event of the applicant being deported to Somalia. At the time of the case, the applicant lived in Graz (Styria).

The applicant left Somalia and reached the Vienna Airport in October 1990, after which he requested refugee status. He stated that his uncle had been an active member of the United Somali Congress (“USC”) and that his father and brother, though not members, had assisted him and been executed, after which he and his family had been suspected of belonging to the USC. The applicant’s car had been confiscated and he had been assaulted; he left Somalia because of fear of being arrested and executed.

The Styria Public Security Authority rejected his application in 1991 but on appeal the Minister of the Interior reversed and granted refugee status within the meaning of the Geneva Convention in 1992. In July 1994 the Federal Refugee Office in Graz ordered the forfeiture of his refugee status pursuant to the Right of Asylum Act § 5 (1)(3) following a judgment of the Graz Regional Court in 1993 sentencing the applicant to two and a half years imprisonment for attempted robbery. In September 1994 the Minister of the Interior dismissed an appeal by the applicant. The Administrative Court set aside this decision in February 1995, holding that the applicant’s conviction for a “particularly serious crime”, which had been interpreted in domestic legislation as  any offence punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding five years; attempted robbery is punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment, had only evidential relevance and that it could not be deduced that, ipso facto, the applicant constituted a danger to Austrian society. In April 1995 the Minister of the Interior again ordered the forfeiture of the applicant’s refugee status and noted the applicant’s attempted robbery and also other measures taken against the applicant, stating that together the offences revealed a tendency to aggression. The Administrative court upheld this decision.

At the same time, in 1994 the Graz Federal Police Authority had issued an indefinite exclusion order against the applicant under § 18 (1) and (2) of the Aliens Act. The applicant’s appeal against this decision was dismissed though the period specified in the exclusion order was reduced to ten years. In January 1995 the Styria Independent Administrative Tribunal upheld his appeal against this measure and he was therefore released after having been taken into custody in 1994 after he was released on parole. In April 1995 the Federal Refugee Office declared the proposed expulsion of the applicant lawful: even if he risked persecution in Somalia, where the situation for his clan had worsened according to the applicant, because it took the view that his offences revealed a tendency toward aggression, it could not be excluded that he constituted a danger to the community within the meaning of § 37 (4) of the Aliens Act. In May 1995 the Styria Public Security Authority set aside the Graz Federal Policy Authority’s decision to dismiss the applicant’s appeal, which the latter then stayed his expulsion for a renewable period of one year in November, finding that he would be at risk of persecution in Somalia.