He was not named in the published decision of the tribunal, which makes decisions on deportations, along with refugee and protected person cases.
However, the decision refers to him as “AG” and details he was from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and arrived in New Zealand on a visitor’s visa in mid 2019.
His wife came with him then, but she has since left the country to return to their 6-year-old child, who was left in the care of grandparents in Mongolia.
The man applied for refugee or protected person status, but Immigration New Zealand officials turned him down. He then appealed to the tribunal.
The tribunal stated the man claimed to have a “well-founded fear” of being persecuted or harmed in his home country after being accused of drug dealing there.
He encountered harsh conditions and treatment when he was in prison on remand, then left the country for China and eventually New Zealand when he was released on bail.
He said the accusations against him originated with “wealthy and influential people” who were trying to cover up their adult children’s involvement in the drug trade.
“The appellant claims that the police and the courts are corrupt and will be complicit in attributing the offending to him, leading to his mistreatment in police custody and his unjust imprisonment in harsh conditions,” the tribunal decision said.
“The Tribunal finds that the appellant is in danger of being subjected to torture, as that term is defined in the 1984 Convention Against Torture, in the form of serious mistreatment at the hands of the Mongolian police, in order to force a confession from him.
“While he is not recognised as a refugee, because the harm is not for any of the reasons required by the Refugee Convention, he is recognised as a protected person [under the Convention Against Torture].”
AG was charged with dealing “ice”, or methamphetamine, in Mongolia.
The tribunal accepted that the father of another young man involved tried to pressure AG into admitting that he had supplied drugs to other suspects and that he bribed the police to have AG beaten while in custody.
But the tribunal said it did not accept AG’s account that he was not involved in the supply of drugs.
“There are far-fetched elements in his account of having innocently allowed the use of his bank account as a vehicle for the transfer of money,” it said.
“Put simply, the evidence points to the appellant receiving money from the other suspects, consistent with their statements to the police that they had bought from the appellant the drugs which were found in their possession.”
However, the tribunal said there were “substantial grounds " to believe AG would be subjected to “severe mental or physical pain or suffering” by police officers in Mongolia to extract a confession from him.
For that reason, it found AG was a protected person in New Zealand under the international Convention Against Torture.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME's Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke's Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
