CAT/C/50/D/467/2011 concluding that an individual might be subjected to torture upon his or her return to his or her country, and additional grounds must exist for the risk of torture to qualify under the meaning of article 3 as “foreseeable, real and personal”. 4.3 The State party submits that it is aware that the general situation in Yemen is characterized by instability since the beginning of the riots in January of 2011, and that until now the human rights situation has been characterized, inter alia, by arbitrary arrests by the police, especially by the secret service, and by the frequent occurrence of torture and ill-treatment in detention. 9 However, these facts do not constitute a situation of generalized violence. There can be no question of systematic, serious, flagrant or mass violations of human rights under the Convention. The resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on 23 November 2011 did not change in principle the general situation in Yemen. His resignation has not resulted in either a worsening or a noticeable improvement of the situation. The State party adds that, according to the Committee’s jurisprudence, the situation in Yemen is not in itself a sufficient basis for concluding that the complainant might be subjected to torture upon his return to that country. It argues that the complainant has not demonstrated that he would face a foreseeable, real and personal risk of being subjected to torture if returned. 4.4 With reference to the Committee’s General Comment No. 1 (para. 8 (b)), the State party submits that torture or ill-treatment allegedly suffered by the complainant in the past is one of the elements that should be taken into account in assessing the risk of him or her being subjected to torture or ill-treatment if returned to the country of origin. In this regard, the State party recalls the complainant’s claims that he was arrested and detained in 2009 after participating in a demonstration organized by the Southern Democratic Assembly, that he received a truncheon blow to the nose during the arrest, that he was questioned once during his detention and was threatened verbally, that he was released on 30 June 2009 after having spent 40 days in detention, that he was again detained overnight on 6 July 2009 on the eve of another demonstration, that he was searched for by the security service officers at his home on 12 January 2010 and summoned to report himself to the al-Brika Police Centre, where he was detained for 24 hours and threatened. 4.5 As to the attestation issued on 22 January 2011 by the Southern Democratic Assembly (see paragraph 2.9 above), the State party submits that it is not decisive, since the attestation does not contain any indication as to how the information about the first complainant’s detention was obtained and verified. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that this attestation was written solely on the basis of the first complainant’s statements. 4.6 The State party further notes that, in order to prove his arrest and detention, the first complainant also provided another attestation issued on 23 January 2011 by the office of the former President of the Democratic Republic of Yemen (see paragraph 2.9 above). According to this attestation, the first complainant is an active personality in the Southern Movement and he was one of those who were “expelled from their work and who have suffered from prejudices and police pursuits, as well as from detention by the organs of the regime”. In this regard, the State party submits that, similar to the attestation issued by the Southern Democratic Assembly, this document is also written in general terms and it does not indicate the source of the information. Therefore, the attestation cannot be considered as evidence of such a probative value that it would overturn the conclusion that has been 9 See Amnesty International, “Yemen – Amnesty International Report 2008”, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/yemen/report-2008, and United States Department of State, “2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Yemen”, 11 March 2008, available at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100610.htm. 7