CAT/C/30/D/191/2001 page 11 For the purposes of the Convention, according to article 1, “the term ‘torture’ means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity”. The Committee observes that the issue whether the State party has an obligation to refrain from expelling a person who might risk pain or suffering inflicted by a non-governmental entity, without the consent or acquiescence of the Government, falls outside the scope of article 3 of the Convention, unless the non-governmental entity occupies and exercises quasi-governmental authority over the territory to which the complainant would be returned.10 Since the complainant can be returned to territory other than that under the control of LTTE, the issue, on which he bases part of his claim, that he would suffer retribution from the LTTE upon his return to Sri Lanka cannot be considered by the Committee. 6.5 With respect to the risk that the complainant might be subjected to torture at the hands of State agents upon return to Sri Lanka, the Committee has noted the complainant’s claim that he is at high personal risk owing to his previous activities as a karate teacher, that he has allegedly already been severely maltreated by soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, and that he bears scars which the authorities would likely assume to have been caused by fighting for the LTTE. It has considered the claim that, because of the failure by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Department (IND) to take a decision on the complainant’s refugee application within the prescribed time limit, the complainant was precluded from filing an objection regarding the merits of the IND’s final decision, dated 20 May 1999. The Committee has further noted that the IND took this decision before the Bureau for Medical Advice (BMA) gave its advice on the complainant’s medical condition. Similarly, the Committee has noted the attention drawn by the State party to a number of inconsistencies and contradictions in the complainant’s account, which are said to cast doubt on the complainant’s credibility and the veracity of his allegations. 6.6 The Committee notes that the medical evidence submitted by the complainant confirms physical as well as psychological symptoms, which might be attributed to his alleged maltreatment at the hand of the Sri Lankan army. However, the Committee observes that, even if the complainant’s allegation that he was severely tortured during his detention at the Trincomalee military camp in 1996 were sufficiently substantiated, these alleged acts of torture did not occur in the recent past. 6.7 In the Committee’s view, the complainant has not demonstrated any other circumstances, other than the fact that he worked as karate teacher in Jaffna until 1996 and the presence of scars on his body, which would appear to make him particularly vulnerable to the risk of torture if he were to be returned to Sri Lanka. Moreover, the Committee again notes that the positive development of the peace negotiations between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE and the implementation of the peace process under way give reason to believe that a person in the situation of the complainant would not be under such risk upon return to Sri Lanka. The Committee therefore finds that the complainant has not provided sufficient evidence for substantiating that the he would be in danger of being subjected to torture, were he to be returned to Sri Lanka, and that such danger is present and personal.