CAT/C/65/D/841/2017 2.13 Concerning the wanted notification submitted as new evidence, the State Secretariat noted that it had not been mentioned at the hearings of 6 and 27 April 2017 even though it was dated December 2016. Moreover, the notification was a copy of an easily forgeable document which cannot be considered authentic. In the State Secretariat’s view, the document on its own was not of a nature to change the outcome of the case or to justify enquiries. 2.14 On 12 October 2017, the complainant lodged an appeal against the decision of the State Secretariat and requested interim measures. He claimed that, since the State Secretariat had deemed the wanted notification attached to his file to be fake, it was under the obligation to prove this claim and make the necessary enquiries to that end. A forensic examination could have been ordered. As for the State Secretariat’s assertion that the wanted notification was not transmitted in a timely fashion, the complainant submits that he transmitted it as soon as he was made aware of it, in other words on 19 September 2017. 2.15 By interim ruling of 17 October 2017, the Federal Administrative Court acceded to the complainant’s request for interim measures and authorized him to remain in Switzerland until the end of the proceedings. The appeal proceedings are ongoing. The complaint 3.1 The complainant claims that his expulsion to the Democratic Republic of the Congo would violate article 3 of the Convention. In that country, deserters from the National Intelligence Agency are considered traitors. As such, the complainant risks the death penalty and/or inhuman and degrading treatment. In order to leave the country and travel to Switzerland, the Agency had given him an exit permit valid for one month. 7 The permit having expired, the complainant would be considered a traitor upon return, especially since he is one of the members of the Armée de résistance populaire closest to Major General Munene. 3.2 In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, human rights defenders are persecuted, arrested and even killed, and the political situation in the country is currently tense owing to the collapse of political talks between the Government and the opposition. These assertions are supported by several reports and various human rights sources, which denounce serious mass violations of the rights of human rights defenders by the security forces. 3.3 A potential expulsion from Switzerland therefore represents a real risk to the complainant’s life. The risk is all the more regrettable that it stems from a decision taken on the basis of the assumption that one of the pieces of evidence is fake, even though no checks were undertaken to prove the assumption. In this type of situation, the State party usually conducts additional enquiries, typically through the Swiss diplomatic mission in the complainant’s country of origin. However, nothing of the sort was undertaken in the complainant’s case even though it would have been apposite to try to shed light on the situation and dispel any reasonable doubts on the direct involvement of Major General Munene in the present case. State party’s observations on admissibility and the merits 4.1 On 1 March 2018, the State party submitted its observations on the admissibility and merits of the communication. It recalls the facts and the proceedings undertaken by the complainant in Switzerland with a view to obtaining asylum, notes that the asylum authorities have duly considered the complainant’s arguments and states that the communication does not include any new information that might invalidate the asylum authorities’ decisions. 4.2 Regarding the admissibility of the communication, the State party is of the view that the complainant has not exhausted all available domestic remedies. Prior to submitting his communication to the Committee, the complainant filed a request for reconsideration to the State Secretariat for Migration, submitting a new element, namely a wanted notification dated 14 December 2016. The appeal against the State Secretariat’s rejection of the asylum 7 4 A copy of the authorization issued by the National Intelligence Agency on 23 March 2012 is on file. GE.19-01119