Complaint 4. The authors submit that, upon return to Viet Nam, they will be apprehended, tortured and sentenced to death and that their forced return to Viet Nam by Sweden would therefore constitute a violation of article 3 of the Convention. Observations by the State party on admissibility and merits 5.1 In its submissions of 3 September 1999, the State party refers to article 22, paragraph 5 (a) of the Convention, according to which the Committee shall not consider any communication from an individual unless it has ascertained that the same matter has not been and is not being examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement. In this context, the State party draws the attention of the Committee to the fact that UNHCR has already examined the cases of the authors. In a letter dated 16 March 1999, the UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic Countries informed the Swedish Minister of Justice that an expulsion of the authors would not be a breach of article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. 5.2 Moreover, the State party submits that the present communication should be considered inadmissible in accordance with article 22, paragraph 2 of the Convention for being incompatible with its provisions due to the lack of the necessary substantiation of the claim. Concerning the merits, the State party contends that the present communication reveals no violation of the Convention. 5.3 With respect to the merits of the communication, the State party draws the attention of the Committee to the fact that according to the Swedish 1989 Aliens Act, an alien must not be expelled from Sweden on account of having committed a criminal offence unless certain conditions are met. Firstly, the alien must be convicted of a crime that is punishable by imprisonment. Secondly, the alien may only be expelled if he is sentenced to a punishment more severe than a fine and if (a) it may be assumed that the alien will continue criminal activity in Sweden; or (b) the offence is of such a serious character that the alien should not be allowed to remain in Sweden. 5.4 The State party further notes that special conditions apply for aliens who are considered to be refugees. Such aliens may be expelled if they have committed a particularly serious crime and public order and security would be seriously endangered if they were allowed to remain in Sweden. Pursuant to the 1989 Aliens Act, there is an absolute impediment to expelling an alien to a country where there are reasonable grounds for believing that he/she would be in danger of suffering capital or corporal punishment or of being subjected to torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 5.5 The State party confirms that the authors were granted permanent residence permits and refugee status as quota refugees in Sweden, in 1992 and 1991 respectively. In accordance with the State party's practice prevailing at the time, they were accepted as quota refugees without any detailed examination of their individual reasons for flight. The Swedish Immigration Board decided to grant asylum to the authors following an interview conducted with the authors by the local police authority. 5.6 The State party states that in April 1995 the two authors were sentenced by the District Court of Halmstad to six years' imprisonment for gross rape, committed together with two other Vietnamese nationals. The authors had previously been found guilty of crimes of violence on several occasions. Owing to the authors' refugee status, the District Court rejected the public prosecutor's request that the authors be expelled from Sweden. Both the authors and the prosecutor appealed the judgement to the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden. 136