The applicant, national of China, was rejected international protection in Switzerland and risks being returned to her country of origin, and she considers that her return would constitute a violation of Article 3 of the Convention. In fact, she converted to Christianity in China in the context of a cancer surgery undergone by her mother and where the treating doctor initiated the applicant and her mother the gospel of Jesus. Her mother’s operation was successful, and she started to participate in the meetings of the gospel, being further baptised in 2010. In 2014, one of the applicant’s sisters in the church was detained and tortured, and after release wrote to the applicant that her husband blamed the applicant for her detention and mistreatment and called the police who started to look or the applicant. The applicant left her country for fear of being arrested. She arrived in Switzerland, applied for asylum in 2015 but her application was rejected in 2016 when SEM considered her statements evasive and contradictory to the general experience. Her appeal was rejected as inadmissible as she could not afford to pay the procedural fees.

Before the UN Committee against Torture the applicant alleges not to be able to return to China as she would risk arrest and torture. The CAT held that also Switzerland noted an increase in the incidence of persecution of Christians in China, that various reports mention that members of different groups, including religious minorities continue to be charged or threatened to eb charged, as a form of intimidation. The CAT mentioned that the applicant substantiated her account on police search, her family and individual circumstances and held that the deportation of the applicant without offering the possibility to have access to an internal effective remedy would infringe the article 3 of the Convention. The CAT requested Switzerland to refrain from deportation fo the applicant until her application for asylum is being reviewed.