CAT/C/30/D/197/2002 page 4 report of 7 January 2002 states that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, that he has a shoulder injury which fits the description of having been hung from one arm, and that he has mental and physical traumas and scars, which were “possibly caused by torture”. The claim 3.1 The petitioner claims to have exhausted domestic remedies with the dismissal of his application, by the Supreme Administrative Court, for leave to appeal against the deportation order.2 3.2 The petitioner claims that there are substantial grounds to believe that he would be subjected to torture if returned to Sri Lanka, in violation of article 3 of the Convention. He stresses that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka continues to be poor, particularly as concerns members of the Tamil population, and that persons suspected of LTTE membership are in danger of disappearing and being arbitrarily detained and tortured. The State party’s observations on the admissibility and merits 4.1 On 8 March 2002, the State party submits that it has no objections to the admissibility of the case. On 9 July 2002, submits its observations on the merits. The State party contests the petitioner’s version of the facts as partly inaccurate, in particular his statements relative to his application for asylum in Germany and the events thereafter. It directs the Committee to the decision of the Directorate of Immigration which is alleged to refer to a number of inconsistencies in the petitioner’s description of events. The State party submits that the petitioner’s claims have been considered fairly in the domestic proceedings. It refers to particular asylum cases where the Supreme Court repealed its decision on deportation, to demonstrate that every case is assessed on its relevant circumstances. 4.2 By decision of 22 October 2001, the Directorate of Immigration assessed the petitioner’s personal situation. It found that the course of events from 1983 to 1989 had no immediate impact on the petitioner’s decision to leave his country of origin. According to the petitioner, he returned to his home town, Jaffna, after his application for asylum had been refused by the German authorities. He resided there without problems until 1996, when the Sri Lankan army occupied Jaffna, and when most of the local residents had to move to Vanni. The alleged torture, which took place approximately 10 years before the petitioner arrived in Finland, does not as such provide substantial grounds for believing that the petitioner would still be in danger of being subjected to torture. 4.3 The State party submits that the arrests which, according to the petitioner, took place in 1998 give no reason to believe that the Sri Lankan authorities would be particularly interested in the petitioner’s activities, as according to the petitioner himself, they were due to the fact that he was new in the area and a suspected LTTE militant. The State party notes that, upon release after his second arrest, he continued to stay two more weeks in Hatton, where he had been arrested, and thereafter in other government-controlled areas, until he left the country. The State party concludes that there is no indication that the petitioner is personally targeted by the Sri Lankan authorities.