CAT/C/61/D/690/2015 reveal his name, the Lebanese embassy there informed him that they knew the articles referred to him. 2.2 The complainant came to Sweden with his mother and two sisters in 2006, when he was a minor. The family applied for asylum on the ground of his father’s involvement in fighting for the Government of Israel. Their claim was rejected in 2007 by the Migration Agency and in 2008 by the Migration Court. On 9 March 2013, the day the expulsion order became statute-barred, the complainant applied again for asylum on the grounds that he was a homosexual man and as such was at risk of being detained and tortured by police and would be at risk of ill-treatment by his relatives if returned to Lebanon. The complainant’s request for asylum was rejected on 17 September 2014 by the Migration Agency. His appeal was rejected on 17 December 2014 by the Migration Court. On 16 February 2016, the Migration Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal and the decision to expel the complainant became final. The complaint 3. The complainant claims that article 534 of the Lebanese Criminal Code criminalizes “unnatural sexual intercourse”, which is punishable by up to one year of imprisonment. In practice, homosexual relations fall under that law. The complainant states that homosexual men arrested under article 534 are abused by the police in detention. He alleges that, if deported to Lebanon, he would be at a risk of torture or other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment from the police. He would risk honour-related violence or killing by his relatives and would not be able to turn for protection to the authorities. State party’s observations on admissibility and the merits 4.1 In its observations dated 14 March 2016, the State party submits that the communication should be considered inadmissible as manifestly unfounded. Should the Committee find the communication admissible, the State party submits that there will be no violation of article 3 of the Convention if the complainant is returned to Lebanon. 4.2 The State party notes that the well-founded fear of persecution due to sexual orientation constitutes part of the asylum criteria according to the Swedish Aliens Act, both when the risk is posed by the authorities or when the authorities fail to afford sufficient protection from persecution by private individuals. On 15 October 2015, the Migration Agency issued its latest general legal positions to guide and facilitate the assessment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-related cases, which are processed by specialists trained in that area. 4.3 On the facts of the case, the State party provides detailed information concerning several asylum and residence proceedings initiated by the complainant before the domestic authorities. The State party further assesses the complainant’s claims by addressing two conditions established by the Committee in its jurisprudence: the general human rights situation in Lebanon and the personal risk for the complainant to be subjected to torture, following his return. 4.4 Regarding the general human rights situation, the State party submits that there is no consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights in Lebanon. According to the Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 2014 by the United States Department of State, 1 article 534 of the Lebanese Criminal Code is rarely applied and, when applied, it often results in a fine. It was reported that the number of cases of harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists had recently decreased and that, in 2009, an important judgment had been delivered stating that the homosexual acts were not unnatural because they were consensual. The report stated that other judges had later made similar decisions. According to the report, with reference to the nongovernmental organization Helem, there had been fewer than 10 prosecutions under article 534 of the Criminal Code in 2010. According to the statement from the Swedish embassy in Amman, there were no ongoing trials under that article in 2013. The State party concludes 1 2 Available from www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2014humanrightsreport/index.htm? year=2014&dlid=236610#wrapper.