CAT/C/33/D/223/2002 Page 6 ground that the applicant was in need of protection having regard to the risk of torture and other ill-treatment in the event of expulsion. The Swedish authorities have therefore significant experience in assessing claims from asylum seekers from Bangladesh, and considerable weight must be attached to their opinions. 4.12 The State party draws the Committee’s attention to the contradictory nature of the statements made by the complainant during the interview and those subsequently made by counsel on his behalf. It questions whether the latter may be considered to represent an accurate description of the account provided by the complainant during the interview. In any event, there can be no doubt that it is the statements made directly by the complainant to the officers of the Migration Board during the two interviews that offer the best material by which to determine the veracity of his claims. 4.13 The State party observes that in the two interviews, the complainant provided contradictory information about two central elements of his account: (i) the identity of the political group(s) responsible for the alleged false murder allegation made against him,1 and (ii) whether the allegation made against him and resulting in his arrest and torture occurred quite shortly before his departure or, alternatively, four to five years earlier. Moreover, statements made by the complainant on these matters in the course of the second interview, as well as his different statements during this interview on the number of arrests and detentions to which he claimed to have been subjected, were difficult to reconcile with the information contained in the supplementary written observations submitted later by counsel on his behalf. While the Committee in its case law has emphasized that complete accuracy cannot be expected from victims of torture, the contradictions contained in the complainant’s statements to the Swedish authorities are of a nature to raise serious doubts as to the general credibility of his claims. 4.14 It should also be observed that, during the first interview, the complainant made no mention of ever having been subjected to deprivations of liberty by supporters of the BNP, nor of having been subjected to torture by the police or the BNP. Furthermore, whereas he stated, during the second interview, that he never reported the harassment to the police as he knew that he would receive no assistance from them, counsel’s subsequent submissions indicate that both the complainant and the Jatiya party reported the incidents to the police but that no action was taken against those involved. Repeatedly asked about his activities in support of the party, the complainant only at the very end of the first interview stated that the reason why he was a subject of interest to the supporters of the BNP was that he had been in charge of activities such as building roads in his community, a role very different from his other alleged tasks (preparing party meetings, handing out leaflets etc.). However, when asked, he was unable to recall the date when he first undertook this task. Furthermore, the complainant’s marital status remains uncertain, as the information he provided contains clear discrepancies. 1 During the first interview the complainant stated that he had been arrested by the police after being falsely accused of murder by « two or three opposition parties », specifically the BNP and the Awami League. In the second interview he stated that he had never had any difficulty with the Awami League and that supporters of the BNP had made a false charge against him.