CAT/C/47/D/347/2008 until 16 November 2005 to pay advance fees of 1,200 Swiss francs. It considered that, to begin with, the articles in Le Courrier d’Afrique filed by the complainant were forgeries with no evidentiary value whatsoever, and that they clearly did not reflect her statements on the reasons for her asylum application. The Commission also noted that the complainant had produced no new information to support her asylum application. Accordingly, on 1 November 2005, after a prima facie review of the appeal, the Commission concluded that the appeal had no chance of success. As the advance payment of fees had been made on 11 and 23 November 2005, the appeal was heard by the Federal Administrative Court, which rejected it on 31 March 2008, insofar as it was admissible. 7.8 On 7 June 2008, the complainant challenged the decision of the Federal Office for Migration dated 4 June 2008, on her second application for review. Taking the view that this was an appeal, the Office forwarded it to the Federal Administrative Court, the body competent to deal with it. As it referred to the complainant’s precarious financial situation, the Court took it as a request to be exempted from paying the procedural fees, which it rejected by decision of 19 June 2008: in any case, the appeal appeared doomed to fail as the application contained no new information and the documents attached thereto did not demonstrate that the complainant was engaged in any political activity in exile. Moreover, the Court noted that the health problems she referred to did not pose an obstacle to her removal, as she could receive psychiatric treatment in Kinshasa. The Court gave the complainant until 4 July 2008 to pay the advance fees, estimated at 1,200 Swiss francs, and informed her that if she did not pay, her appeal would be declared inadmissible and the deadline would not be extended any further, even if she reapplied for legal aid. On 30 June 2008, the complainant applied again to be exempted from payment of the advance fees, claiming she was on welfare. The Federal Administrative Court therefore declared the appeal to be inadmissible by decision of 18 July 2008. A fee of 200 Swiss francs was charged for this decision. 7.9 As for the rules on representation of asylum-seekers by a court-appointed lawyer, on which the Committee had also requested information, the State party refers it to the relevant legal provisions10 and points out that the complainant was represented at her first application for review. The lawyer concerned had not asked for his fees to be covered by legal aid. The complainant was not represented at her second application for reconsideration. It is clear from her statement of 9 April 2008, as well as from the rest of her case file, that the complainant did not at any point ask for a lawyer to be assigned to her. Moreover, the State party points out that, according to the various authorities called upon to rule on the matter, the complainant’s applications for reconsideration clearly had no chance of success. Nor did the case present any legal problems, since the only issue was whether the complainant had refugee status within the meaning of the Federal Asylum Act, and whether there were any reasons for objecting to her removal. Her first application for reconsideration, for which she was represented by a lawyer, was rejected, as were her subsequent applications. It is likely that the outcome of the proceedings would have been the same if the complainant had been represented by a lawyer, and she has not suffered any harm as a result of not being represented during the proceedings before the Federal Office for Migration. 7.10 As for the proceedings before the Federal Administrative Court, the complainant was represented by a lawyer for her second request for an extension of the deadline, addressed to the Asylum Appeals Commission on 16 January 2003. Just as she never asked for a lawyer to be assigned to her for the proceedings before the Federal Office for Migration, she never asked for one in the proceedings before the Federal Administrative 10 GE.12-40160 See para. 7.1 above. 9