CCPR/C/106/D/1912/2009 4.5 The State party adds that, according to the author, he was arrested in August 1999 as part of a round-up of 1,000 persons from his area, questioned and threatened until released the same day. In May 2000, the author was allegedly arrested by the army following a grenade-throwing incident. He was allegedly beaten with plastic pipes, barbed wire and boots. In October 2001, when he, his wife and their teenage son were on their way to Valvettithurai, they were arrested by the army and detained for five days. They moved to Valvettithurai where in September 2002, the LTTE allegedly detained him for five days, accusing and assaulting him. He was released after his wife paid the LTTE the money they wanted. He was asked to report back in December 2002. The LTTE told him that if he did not support them regularly, they would take his only son with them. He went into hiding and heard that the army had come looking for him. He and his family went to Colombo where he was introduced to an agent who offered to help him flee the country. The agent said he would help the author’s wife and son in due course. The author therefore fled to Canada while his wife and son stayed in Colombo. 4.6 On 11-12 May 2004, the Refugee Protection Division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board heard the author’s claim. The author was assisted by counsel and provided documentary evidence and oral testimonies. He had the possibility to explain any ambiguities or inconsistencies. On 18 June 2004, the IRB which is an independent and specialized tribunal found that the author was not a Convention refugee and not a person in need of protection. The IRB considered that the author’s lack of credibility was determinative of his claim. For instance, the author claimed in his Personal Information Form (PIF) that he did not know where his wife was when he had told the IRB that he telephoned her every month. Moreover, he claimed in his PIF that he and his wife moved to Colombo in November 2001 when he had later told the IRB that he had learned in December 2002 that his wife and son lived in Colombo. When asked about these inconsistencies, he replied that the PIF had been filled in in English which he did not master. However, at the start of the hearing, he affirmed that he fully understood the entire contents of the PIF. The IRB considered that this undermined his credibility. 4.7 The author submitted a letter from a Sri Lankan lawyer in an attempt to corroborate his story. However, the information provided in the letter contradicts statements made earlier by the author such as the fact that contrary to what he had stated, the author had been in Valvettithurai several times between 1995 and 2002. The author submitted a letter from another Sri Lankan lawyer stating that his son had been arrested on 9 February 2002 under the Internal Security Act on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist movement, when the police report that the author also mentioned that he had been arrested for not having a National Identity Card, and that the son was found to have no connection with a terrorist movement. The IRB also rejected the fact that during the hearing the author referred to important elements such as his son’s repeated arrests which he had not mentioned in the PIF. The IRB could not understand why the author would return to Valvettithurai in 2002, which is the place where the LTTE have their origin, if he feared the LTTE. The author’s return there was inconsistent with his alleged fear. Finally, the IRB considered it was inconsistent for the author to have stayed in Sri Lanka for almost 20 years since he first started having problems. In particular, the author stated that his detention in 2000 was the worst he had experienced. Still, he waited another two years before he fled to Canada. On 29 October 2004, the Federal Court denied the author’s application for leave to apply for judicial review of the IRB decision on the ground that there was no fairly arguable case or a serious question to be determined. 4.8 On 11 February 2005, the author applied for permanent residence in Canada based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. In support of his application, he claimed that both sides, the army and the LTTE, were looking for him, and that his wife and son were hiding. He also stated that his land and house had been washed away by the tsunami. The State party submits that the assessment of an H&C application consists of a broad, 7