ECtHR decision in Z.M. v. France, Application No. 40042/11 [Article 3], 14 November 2013

Date: 
Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Applicant is a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and former member of the Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC), for which he drew several political cartoons. Seeking asylum in France in 2008, he alleged that he was the subject of three weeks of detention in overcrowded conditions without sufficient sleep or food and no access to a lawyer or judicial authority, during which he was interrogated, whipped and burned with cigarettes. After his escape from prison, he hid in Matadi and resumed cartoon and campaign activities for MLC, before finally travelling to France. His asylum application was refused and his deportation was ordered but stayed by a Rule 39 Interim Measure from the ECtHR. Before the ECtHR, he alleges his return to the DRC would subject him, by reason of his personal circumstances rather than the general country situation, to a risk of treatment contrary to Article 3. 

The ECtHR held that, in view of the Applicant’s links with the MDC (who are in opposition), his past imprisonment, his explicit supporting medical evidence, and the court summons charging him with offences carrying life imprisonment, he was therefore likely to be detained and interrogated by DRC authorities on return. The Court held that this likelihood carried a real risk of an Article 3 violation. The Court in addition maintained the Interim Measure until the judgment becomes final. No award for non-pecuniary damage was made.

Read the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.


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Keywords: 
Inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Personal circumstances of applicant
Tags: 
ECtHR
France