CAT/C/35/D/238/2003 Page 14 11.1 On 6 April 2005, the State party submitted additional observations regarding the Immigration Appeals Board’s decision of 12 March 2004. It states that its decision to review the complainant’s case was taken by the Board on its own initiative, without any formal request by the complainant. While the Committee’s admissibility decision of 14 November 2003 was the cause for the review, there was no obligation upon the Board to do so. The State party points out that the final decision of 29 December 1997 has now been reviewed four times in total by the Norwegian authorities, who each time did not find substantial grounds for believing that he would be at a substantial, present and personal risk of torture if returned to Ethiopia. 11.2 By letter of 22 April 2005, the complainant responded to the State party’s supplementary submission, criticizing the procedure followed by the Immigration Appeals Board concerning its most recent decision of 12 March 2004. He accepts that the decision entailed “an extensive deliberation of the case”, but states that due to a change in counsel the decision was apparently not received by him. He argues that he should have been provided with prior notice of the hearing and should have been provided with the Board’s decision. Disposition of procedural issue: 12.1 On 10 November 2004, the complainant applied to the Committee, under Rule 111, paragraph 4, of the Committee’s Rules of Procedure, for leave to submit oral testimony to the Committee. He argued that he had not had not had opportunity to present his case in person before the domestic decision-making bodies in his case, nor had he appeared before the courts. Given that a major reason for the rejection of his claim was an assessment of his credibility, an issue that can be well tested in oral testimony, he contended that oral testimony before the Committee would provide it with a basis to assess his credibility. 12.2 On 26 November 2004, at its 33rd session, the Committee rejected the complainant’s application under Rule 111, paragraph 4. Examination of the merits: 13.1 The issue before the Committee is whether the removal of the complainant to Ethiopia would violate the State party’s obligation under article 3 of the Convention not to expel or to return a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture. The Committee must evaluate whether there are substantial grounds for believing that the complainant would be personally in danger of being subjected to torture upon return to Ethiopia. In assessing this risk, the Committee must take into account all relevant considerations, pursuant to article 3, paragraph 2, of the Convention, including past incidents of torture or the existence of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. However, the Committee recalls that the aim of such determination is to establish whether the individual concerned would be personally at a foreseeable and real risk of being subjected to torture in the country to which he or she would return. 13.2 The Committee has considered the periods of imprisonment suffered by the complainant in the 1980s and 1990s and his allegation that he was subjected to beatings, to maltreatment and psychological torture in Ethiopia in the past on account of his political activities. It notes the interest of the Ethiopian authorities in his person