CAT/C/23/D/93/1997 page 9 5.9 The appeal against the refusal of permission to reside in France currently pending before the Limoges Administrative Court does not entail a stay of execution and thus affords the author no protection whatsoever against forcible return to his home country. In parallel with his request to have that refusal overturned, the author submitted, in February 1999, an application for suspension of the contested decision. That procedure, too, does not entail a stay of execution. While, theoretically, it should be pursued as a matter of extreme urgency, 6 one need only observe that the application has still not been heard and that delays in such cases can run into years. As for the appeal, counsel states that, in 1999, petitions submitted in 1994 were coming up before the Limoges Administrative Court for a hearing. 5.10 As for the substance, the appeals lodged, even if they entailed a stay of execution and even if they were heard within a reasonable period, would, in keeping with constant case law, be rejected. Applications for suspension are consistently held to be inadmissible unless the contested decision places the petitioner, already in an irregular situation, in a new de facto and de jure situation. With regard to the substance, moreover, there is first of all case law that is just as constant that fears in the country of origin are of no avail against a refusal of permission to reside in France. Secondly, the applicant always bears the burden of providing conclusively the truth of the facts he cites; yet by definition, no absolute proof such as the French administration and courts demand can be provided in the present case. C. Author not a victim in the absence of expulsion proceedings 5.11 According to counsel, keeping the author in a situation where he has no right to any legal support, housing, or welfare coverage is in itself suffering intentionally inflicted and/or condoned with the objective of persuading him not to remain in French territory, and constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment and torture within the meaning of article 1 of the Convention. 5.12 One has only to read the decision by the Prefect of Haute-Vienne refusing the author permission to reside in France, notice of which was served on him on 27 July 1998, to see that he is given a month to leave the country, after which time an order for his deportation will be issued. French administrative practice is as follows. Either a deportation order is sent by recorded delivery to the individual’s last known address; in this case it is final, and that the individual may not know of its existence is irrelevant; or else a deportation order is immediately produced, served on the individual and put into effect when he is arrested or subjected to an identity check. In the former case, the individual has seven days in which to appeal. K.N., does not know whether such a letter was sent to him. In the latter case, an appeal must be entered within 48 hours. It cannot seriously be maintained that, in such circumstances, the author would have the time and opportunity to establish what risks he is running, when he had been denied the option of doing so since 1992. Such an appeal did indeed entail a stay of execution, but the court is required to give its ruling within 48 hours. In the circumstances, this cannot be regarded as an effective and appropriate remedy. 5.13 According to counsel, arguments based on fears and on risks run in the country of destination are of no avail against the expulsion order itself and can at best serve to have the decision as to country of destination overturned where appropriate. Besides the additional procedural complication this creates for the alien, who must remember to state specifically that he also contests the possible decision as to country of destination and adduce separate factual and