CAT/C/30/D/219/2002 page 7 3.2 Counsel claims that by granting the Spanish extradition request which exclusively relied on Felipe San Epifanio’s testimony, extracted by torture, and on the evidence found on the basis of this testimony in the apartment at calle Padilla, the State party violated article 15 of the Convention. Counsel argues that the use in extradition proceedings of evidence obtained as a result of torture runs counter to the spirit of the Convention since it provides the authorities of the requesting State with an incentive to disregard the prohibition of torture. By granting the Spanish extradition request, the Federal Office of Justice de facto accepted the evidence obtained through torture. The State party’s observations on admissibility and merits 4.1 On 8 November 2002, the State party submitted its observations on the admissibility and merits of the complaint. It does not contest the admissibility of the complaint. 4.2 The State party reiterates that questions of facts and evidence as well as of innocence or guilt cannot be examined in an extradition procedure, these matters being reserved to the trial courts. Since the complainant was free to invoke her arguments before the Spanish courts, an extradition to Spain was possibly even in her own interest because it provided her with an opportunity to be released from prison following an acquittal. 4.3 With regard to the complainant’s claim under article 3, the State party submits that isolated cases of maltreatment in Spanish prisons fall short of attesting to a systematic practice of torture in that country. Moreover, the complainant had failed to establish that she was at a concrete and personal risk of being tortured if extradited to Spain. In particular, the case of Josu Arkauz Arana, who had been extradited to Spain on the basis of a purely administrative procedure, which had subsequently been found illegal by the Administrative Court of Pau, in the absence of any intervention of a judicial authority and of the possibility for the author to contact his family or lawyer, was not comparable to the complainant’s situation. While the particular circumstances of Josu Arkauz Arana’s extradition to Spain had placed him in a situation where he had been particularly vulnerable to possible abuse, the complainant had enjoyed the benefits of a judicial extradition procedure ensuring respect for her human rights and fundamental freedoms. According to the State party, the same guarantees applied in Spain which, being a member to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment as well as to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention, was subject to the scrutiny of the supervising bodies of these instruments, which provided the complainant with a preventive guarantee not to be tortured. Moreover, the complainant enjoyed diplomatic protection by Germany and could avail herself of the services of a lawyer of her choice already hired from Switzerland. The State party could also mandate its own Embassy in Spain to monitor the complainant’s conditions of detention. The international attention drawn to the case provided a further guarantee against any risk of torture. 4.4 With respect to the complainant’s claim under article 15 of the Convention, the State party submits that nothing establishes that Felipe San Epifanio’s testimony had been extracted by torture. The complainant herself had stated that the criminal proceedings initiated by Mr. San Epifanio had been closed. Again, it was for the criminal courts in Spain and not for the Swiss extradition authorities to pronounce themselves on the admissibility of evidence.