CAT/C/29/D/193/2001 page 14 division ruled in favour of extradition on 18 March 1998. Thus, the extradition order itself had not been questioned, but only the fact that the State party’s decision to extradite the complainant had not been accompanied by a reservation concerning the facts related to Mr. Azurmendi’s statements. 4.9 Under the State party’s legislation, the Act of 10 March 1927 applies in cases of requests for extradition made by Spain. Pursuant to article 16 of the Act, the indictment division must verify whether or not the legal conditions for extradition have been met. In this regard, it must verify whether or not the file has been properly prepared, whether or not there has been an “obvious error” with respect to the identity of the requested individual and whether it is clear that the individual could not have participated in the acts of which he is accused. However, the indictment division, pursuant to a general principle of French extradition law, may not assess whether or not prosecution is founded or if all of the charges are sufficient. 4.10 The indictment division then issues a ruling that may, if it is favourable, be accompanied by reservations or be partially favourable. If the opinion is unfavourable, it is final. Any review that the Court of Cassation may later conduct relates solely to the procedure and the rules governing the procedure. 4.11 On the basis of a favourable ruling by the indictment division, the Government adopts, when necessary, an extradition decree, which is subject to appeal before the Council of State, which monitors “procedural irregularities of the extradition decree and […] the legality of the extradition measure in domestic law in the light of international law and international conventions, in order to verify whether, particularly after the indictment division has examined the case, the Government had been able to decide legally that conditions for extradition, for the offences involved, had been met”. The State party emphasizes that it was in this context that, on 15 February 1999, the Council of State annulled an extradition decision on the grounds of a breach of article 3 of the Convention against Torture. 4.12 With regard to the complainant’s allegations that Mr. Azurmendi’s statements had been obtained as a result of torture, the indictment division decided that “while it is true that Azurmendi implicated [P.E.], he did so not under duress but, as indicated in the evidence submitted by the requesting State, on Civil Guard premises, in the presence of a lawyer”. For its part, the Council of State, on the basis of the same evidence, considered that those allegations had not been accompanied by any prima facie evidence. The Council of State also stressed “that it follows from the general principles of the law applicable to extradition that it is not up to the French authorities, except in the case of an obvious error, to rule on the correctness of the charges against the person claimed; that, in the case at hand, it does not appear that an obvious error has been committed both with respect to the offence of belonging to an armed group and with respect to the crime of complicity in attempted murder, of which Ms. [P.E.] has been accused”. 4.13 The State party maintains that the State party’s obligation under article 15 of the Convention applies only if it is “established” that the statement in question had been obtained as a result of torture. The wording of this provision is very different from that of article 3 of the Convention, which prohibits a State party from returning or expelling a person to another State