CAT/C/47/D/347/2008 6.3 In the same submission of 15 October 2010, the complainant reiterated her fears about returning to Kinshasa, claiming that she was still an active member of APARECO in Zurich. She added that the Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Démocratie, which was close to President Kabila, was also active in Zurich, and reported on members of the opposition working against the Kinshasa regime, which exacerbated the risks she would face if she returned. The applicant also informed the Committee that her mother had died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in June 2010, and said that her fiancé was still missing and that she had had no news of him. Lastly, she drew the Committee’s attention to her state of health, enclosing with her submission a medical certificate attesting to the fact that she had numerous disorders, both physical and psychiatric, including depression, severe insomnia and suicidal tendencies. Additional submissions by the State party 7.1 On 14 April 2011, at the request of the Committee, the State party submitted observations on the rules applicable to the free assistance of a lawyer in appeal proceedings, as well as the rules on the advance payment of fees in asylum proceedings. On the first of these points, the State party begins by stressing that article 3 of the Convention cannot be construed as placing an obligation on the State party to pay the fees of a court-appointed lawyer in every case, regardless of the circumstances of the case.6 The State party adds that, under the relevant domestic law, three conditions must be met for the court-appointed lawyer’s fee to be paid: (a) the applicant must be indigent; (b) their application must have some chance of success; and (c) representation must be necessary, in the sense that the case must present, in law or in fact, specific difficulties that the party is not capable of resolving on their own.7 According to the State party, the requirements of article 3 of the Convention do not go further than these principles. 7.2 As for the procedural fees, the State party stresses that the initial application for asylum is free of charge. However, a fee is payable for review procedures processed by the Federal Office for Migration and for repeated asylum applications.8 The Office may, moreover, require advance payment of the estimated procedural fees.9 If an application for reconsideration is submitted shortly before execution of the expulsion order, and the expulsion has already been planned, it is the practice of the Office to skip the request for advance payment of fees and process the application as quickly as possible. The same practice is adopted in certain other circumstances, such as when the application is submitted at an airport or while the applicant is in detention. In other cases, if the applicant is not indigent, or if their application appears doomed to failure, advance payment of the fees is usually requested, for either an application for reconsideration or a new asylum application. Normally the inquiries to determine if fees must be paid in advance are carried out as soon as the application is submitted. 7.3 The indigence requirement is met when the person concerned cannot afford to pay the procedural fee without using money needed for their personal needs or their family’s needs. Case law considers that a case has no chance of success if the prospects of winning it are considerably less than losing it and if success cannot be seen as a serious possibility, to the extent that a reasonable, well-off litigant would not embark on the procedure on account of the costs they would be liable to incur. On the other hand, legal aid may be granted when the chances of success or failure are about the same, or when the first are only slightly lower than the latter. The official decision is based on a brief pre-evaluation of the evidence 6 7 8 9 GE.12-40160 The State party refers to the Committee’s general comment No. 1, para. 5. Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999, art. 29, para. 3 (Cst., RS 101). Federal Asylum Act, art. 17b, para. 1. Federal Asylum Act, art. 17b, para. 3. 7