expulsion. He alleges that his forced return to Ethiopia would constitute a violation by Norway of article 3 of the Convention. He is represented by counsel. 1.2 In accordance with article 22, paragraph 3, of the Convention, the Committee transmitted the communication to the State party on 19 November 1998. At the same time the State party was requested, pursuant to rule 108, paragraph 9, of the Committee's rules of procedure, not to expel S.H. to Ethiopia while his communication was under consideration by the Committee. In a submission of 19 January 1999 the State party informed the Committee that S.H. would not be deported to his country of origin until further notice. The facts as submitted by the author 2.1 The author belongs to the Amhara ethnic group. In 1991 his father, a doctor, disappeared after having been arrested and has not been seen again. The author believes that his father's arrest and disappearance were due to his ethnic background and accusations that he was a supporter of the Mengistu regime. In 1993 the author joined the All-Amhara People's Organization (AAPO).a By then he was working as an agriculture adviser in Debre Birhan, an Amhara district. Within the AAPO he was entrusted with two kinds of activities: on the one hand, propaganda and recruitment and, on the other hand, smuggling weapons, organizing attacks to capture weapons and making arrangements for their distribution. 2.2 In 1995 the author was arrested by the security forces during a clandestine meeting he had organized near Debre Birhan. Two days later he was taken to a secret detention centre where he was heavily tortured. After nine months in detention his family bribed a guard who helped him to escape. He stayed in hiding for some time in Addis Ababa, until he travelled to Norway in November 1995. 2.3 Upon applying for asylum he was interviewed at the Asker and Baerum Police Department on 3 and 22 November 1995. The Directorate of Immigration rejected his application on 15 December 1995. The author was not found to be credible for the following reasons: (a) he did not know anything about the arrest of other members of his party; (b) two photographs of the author at liberty bore dates which were during the time when he claimed to have been in detention; (c) the author did not bear visible marks of torture. 2.4 The author filed an appeal with the Ministry of Justice on 5 January 1996 in which he responded to the reasons given by the Directorate in the following manner: he knew about the arrest of several members of his party but he did not know their names; the automatic dating system of the camera used to take the abovementioned photographs was not working properly because of a flat battery; he had scars as a result of torture but the Norwegian police showed no interest in looking at them. 2.5 On 6 November 1997 the Ministry of Justice rejected the appeal. The Ministry did not find the explanations given by the author convincing. Moreover, the Ministry was informed through the Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi that the author was not known to the AAPO leadership; that, according to that leadership, the meeting at which the author claimed to have been arrested never took place; and that two documents provided by the author with his application for asylum were found to be false. 2.6 The author claims that he was not given the opportunity to comment on the report of the Norwegian Embassy, a report which was based on an inquiry made by a lawyer in Addis Ababa whose identity was never a According to reports by Amnesty International, the AAPO was formed in 1992 as a registered political party which opposed the Government through solely peaceful means. 179