6.5The Committee against Torture, acting under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, concludes that the removal of the complainant to South Africa, on the basis of the information submitted, did not entail a breach of article 3 of the Convention. Note Communication No. 182/2001 Submitted by:Mr. A.I. (represented by counsel, Mr. Hans Peter Roth) Alleged victim:The complainant State party:Switzerland Date of complaint:5 March 2001 (initial submission) The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Meeting on 12 May 2004, Having concluded its consideration of complaint No. 182/2001, submitted to the Committee against Torture by Mr. A.I. under article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Having taken into account all information made available to it by the author of the complaint, his counsel and the State party, Adopts the following decision under article 22 of the Convention. 1.1The complainant is A.I., a Sri Lankan national of Tamil origin, born in 1977, currently residing in Switzerland, and awaiting his deportation to Sri Lanka. He claims that his forcible return to Sri Lanka would amount to a violation by Switzerland of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He is represented by counsel. 1.2On 25 April 2001, the Committee forwarded the communication to the State party for comments. The Committee notes that the State party decided, of its own motion, not to return the complainant to Sri Lanka while his case is pending before the Committee. The facts as submitted by the complainant 2.1The complainant is from Chankanai in the north of Sri Lanka. In July 1995, he and his family fled the hostilities between combatants in the civil war, and temporarily stayed in a refugee camp near Navaly. During the bombing of a Catholic church in Navaly by the Sri Lankan Air Force, he witnessed the killing of numerous refugees who had sought shelter in that church, including some of his remote relatives. The complainant and his family subsequently went to the then LTTEa-controlled Chavakachcheri, where his younger brother, S., joined the LTTE. 2.2In January 1996, the complainant and his mother travelled to Colombo to make arrangements for his departure from Sri Lanka. Following a bomb attack on a bank in Colombo, in which a neighbour was involved, the complainant and his mother were arrested by security forces on 31 January 1996, and detained at the Pettah police station. On 8 and 16 February 1996, the complainant was visited by a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and, on 22 February 1996, he and his mother were released from detention upon payment of a bribe. 2.3On 30 March 1996, the complainant was arrested during an identity check by an army patrol that brought him to Welikade prison, where he was interrogated about his connection with the LTTE. After his release on 1 January 1997, he was returned to Chankanai. Meanwhile, his younger brother had died, on 18 July 1996, during an LTTE attack against an army camp near Mullaitivu. 2.4Following his return to Chankanai, the complainant and his second brother, T., were arrested six or seven times, between April and June 1997, by militia of the EPRLFb and TELO.c They were taken to a camp near Puttur, where they were interrogated about their links with the LTTE. During interrogation, they were allegedly beaten; in one case, they received blows with an iron chain and were burnt on their back with a hot piece of iron, in order to extract a confession. In July 1997, T. was once again arrested by militia; he has disappeared since. 2.5Thereafter, the complainant returned to Colombo, from where he left for Switzerland via Turkey and Italy on 22 August 1997, using a false passport. 2.6On 26 August 1997, the complainant applied for political asylum in Switzerland. Following interviews by the Federal Office for Refugees (BFF) on 26 August 1997 and 22 April 1998, and by the alien police on 14 October 1997, the BFF rejected his asylum application on 28 October 1998, at the same time ordering him to leave the country by 15 January 1999. The order was based on the following grounds: (a) the lack of credibility of his claims concerning his detention at Welikade prison and the alleged disappearance of his second brother, T., as well as inconsistencies in the description of his and his brother’s ill treatment at the hands of the EPRLF/TELO; (b) the absence of a sufficient link, in time and substance, between his detention at the Pettah police station from 31 January to 22 February 1996 and his departure from Sri Lanka on 22 August 1997; and (c) the absence of a sufficiently substantiated risk of torture upon return to Sri Lanka, where the complainant would be able to resettle in areas not affected by the hostilities between the parties to the conflict. 2.7On 30 November 1998, the complainant lodged an appeal with the Swiss Asylum Review Commission (ARK) and subsequently