6.1 As to the merits of the communication, the State party refers to the Committee’s jurisprudence in the case of Mutombo v. Switzerland, d/ and the criteria established by the Committee, first, that a person must personally be at risk of being subjected to torture, and, second, that such torture must be a necessary and foreseeable consequence of the return of the person to his or her country. 6.2 As regards the general situation of human rights in Zaire, the State party acknowledges that the situation is grave and unacceptable, despite some improvements since 1994. The State party submits, however, that in general returning asylum seekers are not faced with political persecution. 6.3 The State party refers to its own legislation and states that its principles reflect the same principle as that of article 3 of the Convention. The State party’s authorities thus apply the same test as the Committee in deciding on the return of a person to his or her country. The State party recalls that the mere possibility that a person may be subjected to illtreatment in his or her country of origin does not suffice to require that a person be given asylum in a third country or to prohibit his or her return as being incompatible with article 3 of the Convention. 6.4 In the instant case, the State party relies on the opinions of the Immigration Board and the Appeal Board, which after a careful examination of the facts of the author’s case, concluded that she would not be personally at risk of being subjected to torture when returned to Zaire. 6.5 The State party further points to inconsistencies in the author’s story, in relation to the rape of which she was allegedly a victim. The author, according to the medical statement of May 1995, had said that she was raped more than 10 times during the time she spent in detention, whereas in her interview with the Swedish police in February 1992 she mentioned being beaten, but not raped, and in her account of 21 January 1993 she mentions having been raped twice. According to the State party, these inconsistencies impact significantly on the veracity of the author’s story. Further, the State party recalls that the medical evidence was only submitted in 1995, that is, after the procedure for the establishment of the refugee claim was terminated, thus weakening further the author’s credibility. 6.6 The State party argues that the evidence presented by the author is insufficient to demonstrate that the risk of her being tortured is a foreseeable and necessary consequence of her return to Zaire. In this context, the State party submits that the present day situation in Zaire is different than that when the author was being detained for her political activities and that there is no reason to believe that the author now would be arrested by the authorities upon her return to her country. Counsel’s comments 7.1 In her comments on the State party’s submission, counsel confirms that the Swedish Immigration Board, on 8 March 1996, decided to stay the author’s expulsion until 25 May 1996. 7.2 She refers to the United States Department of State report on human rights practices in Zaire of 1995, where it was stated that the Government continued to tolerate and commit serious human rights abuses, especially through its security forces. -84-