CAT/C/30/D/219/2002 page 10 6.6 Having regard to the complainant’s reference to the Committee’s views in the case of Josu Arkauz Arana, the Committee observes that the specific circumstances of that case, which led to the finding of a violation of article 3 of the Convention, differ markedly from the circumstances in the present case. The deportation of Josu Arkauz Arana “was effected under an administrative procedure, which the Administrative Court of Pau had later found to be illegal, entailing a direct handover from police to police, without the intervention of a judicial authority and without any possibility for the author to contact his family or his lawyer”.17 By contrast, the complainant’s extradition to Spain was preceded by a judicial review, by the Swiss Federal Tribunal, of the decision of the Federal Office of Justice to grant the Spanish extradition request. The Committee notes that the judgement of the Federal Court, as well as the decision of the Federal Office, both contain an assessment of the risk of torture that the complainant would be exposed to following an extradition to Spain. The Committee, therefore, considers that, unlike in the case of Josu Arkauz Arana, the legal guarantees were sufficient, in the complainant’s case, to avoid placing her in a situation where she was particularly vulnerable to possible abuse by the Spanish authorities. 6.7 The Committee observes that possible inconsistencies in the facts on which the Spanish extradition request was based, cannot as such be construed as indicating any hypothetical intention of the Spanish authorities to inflict torture or ill-treatment on the complainant, once the extradition request was granted and executed. Insofar as the complainant claims that the State party’s decision to extradite her violated articles 3 and 9 of the European Convention on Extradition of 1957, the Committee observes that it is not competent ratione materiae to pronounce itself on the interpretation or application of that Convention. 6.8 Lastly, the Committee notes that, subsequent to the complainant’s extradition to Spain, it has received no information on torture or ill-treatment suffered by the complainant during incommunicado detention. In the light of the foregoing, the Committee finds that the complainant’s extradition to Spain did not constitute a violation by the State party of article 3 of the Convention. 6.9 With regard to the alleged violation of article 15 of the Convention, the Committee has noted the complainant’s arguments that, in granting the Spanish extradition request, which was, at least indirectly, based on testimony extracted by torture from Felipe San Epifanio, the State party itself had relied on this evidence, and that article 15 of the Convention applied not only to criminal proceedings against her in Spain, but also to the extradition proceedings before the Swiss Federal Office of Justice as well as the Federal Court. Similarly, the Committee has noted the State party’s submission that the admissibility of the relevant evidence was a matter to be decided by the Spanish courts. 6.10 The Committee observes that the broad scope of the prohibition in article 15, proscribing the invocation of any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture as evidence “in any proceedings”, is a function of the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture and implies, consequently, an obligation for each State party to ascertain whether or not statements admitted as evidence in any proceedings for which it has jurisdiction, including extradition proceedings, have been made as a result of torture.18