concerned would be personally at risk". The State party therefore considers it incumbent upon asylum seekers from Zaire to demonstrate that specific facts and circumstances apply in their particular case to justify that risk. 4.6 The State party states that in assessing the circumstances of the individual asylum seeker from Zaire, the guiding principle is the consideration by the Legal Uniformity Division in the above-mentioned judgement of 3 November 1994, that a Zairian national who has previously been detained and who is therefore known to the authorities is at greater risk to be apprehended upon return and to be detained again. The Court considered that asylum seekers who can demonstrate sufficiently convincingly that they belong to this group should therefore be granted a residence permit for compelling reasons of a humanitarian nature. In this context, the State party explains that detention should be understood as "registered detention", that is, a detention that has lasted for a substantial period of time. If it is found that a registered detention has occurred, the asylum seeker is granted a residence permit for compelling reasons of a humanitarian nature. 4.7 As to the author’s claim, the State party states that his asylum application was examined in the light of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. 4.8 The State party states that the author’s membership of UDPS in itself is not sufficient to assume that he has a well-founded fear of persecution. The Court has ruled that as UDPS is a recognized political opposition party in Zaire, and the author’s activities for this party have been only marginal, it is not likely that the Zairian authorities have taken a negative interest in him. Furthermore, the State party asserts that on his first arrest, the author agreed that he was apprehended together with a large number of other people, clearly at random. The second arrest was likewise not an action directed against the author personally. 4.9 The State party states that when the author was first questioned by an official of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, he claimed that he had been subjected to ill-treatment and showed his scars. The scars were however not such as to prompt the official to request a detailed medical examination. Furthermore, the State party states that neither the individual nor his authorized representative requested such an examination at any time during the proceedings. Equally, the author did not decide to have himself examined by another medical practitioner in order to produce a medical certificate. Nor did the Court consider a medical examination to be necessary. 4.10 The State party endorses the position adopted by the Netherlands courts that it cannot be anticipated on the basis of the facts that X is so well-known to the Zairian authorities that he will be arrested if he returns to Zaire. Furthermore, according to the State party, the swift release after his second arrest suggests that the Zairian authorities do not regard him as the perpetrator of activities that pose a threat to the State, unlike the case of Mr. Mutombo b/ who was sentenced by a military court to a long term of imprisonment. Counsel’s comments 5.1 In her comments on the State party’s submission, dated 5 March 1995, counsel states that the Dutch Alien Act allows for the possibility that a single judge in chambers decides on the question whether expulsion would contradict -78-