CAT/C/38/D/298/2006 page 9 appearances police officers and that they wanted to know where C.A.R.M. was. He ostensibly refused to send sworn testimony to C.A.R.M. confirming his allegations because he was afraid he would be placing himself in danger. According to C.A.R.M., the members of his family were not used to helping each other out, and his half-brother was angry with him. The State party observes that the PRRA officer noted that the half-brother had nevertheless taken the trouble to send a copy of the complaint to C.A.R.M. as well as a copy of his voter registration card. 4.11 With regard to the letter from the family friend informing the complainants that they were still being hunted, the State party says that the PRRA officer noted that the letter was dated subsequent to the time that the PRRA had been offered to the complainants, and that it did not form part of an ongoing correspondence relating similar incidents that had occurred since the complainants’ departure from Mexico. The PRRA officer also felt that it was unreasonable to think that police officers would have waited three years before showing up if they were really looking for the complainants, and that the letter did not come from an independent source. 4.12 The State party says, with regard to the Internet article stating that the former director of the prison in San Pedro Cholula had fled after a warrant was issued for his arrest, that C.A.R.M. stated in his PRRA application that the individual in question was the same person who had warned him that the drug traffickers from the Gulf Cartel were in the prison. According to C.A.R.M.’s Personal Information Form, however, it was the mayor’s secretary who told him about the presence of the drug traffickers. The PRRA officer also concluded that the article did not establish any link between the events discussed in the article and the complainants’ allegations. It was not possible to conclude from the article that the complainants’ life or security were in jeopardy in Mexico. 4.13 With regard to the documentation on the general situation in Mexico, the State party declares that the PRRA officer studied a number of the reports on the situation of human rights in Mexico and concluded, inter alia, that “corruption and abuse of the justice system are widespread”. He noted, however, that the Mexican Government had had some success in combating corruption and that remedies existed for victims. The officer concluded that the complainants had not demonstrated the inability of the Mexican State to protect them, having used none of the remedies available to them. 4.14 The State party submits that the complaint is not even minimally founded. The State party recalls the Committee’s general comment No. 1, which establishes that “it is the responsibility of the author to establish a prima facie case for the purpose of admissibility of his or her communication”. The complaint submitted to the Committee for consideration is, first of all, manifestly devoid of any substance, given the clear lack of evidence to show that the complainants run any personal risk of being subjected to reprisals in Mexico. As the letter from the family friend cannot be considered to have come from an independent source, the complaint is based almost entirely on the allegations of C.A.R.M., whose credibility has been cast into serious doubt by the many discrepancies in his testimony. C.A.R.M. has failed to establish that, if a risk did exist, it would exist anywhere in Mexico. The State party believes that the complainants have not established that they would be personally at risk of torture anywhere in Mexican territory.