CAT/C/60/D/677/2015 Council. However, this institution responded that it would not issue referrals for age determination, as it was awaiting new instructions from the National Board of Health and Welfare. In January 2014, the contract for medical age evaluations was signed by the National Board of Health and Welfare. However, the institution had no appointment available. The Agency considered that it was not in the complainant’s interests to await this process. Additionally, the time elapsed since the dental test — 10 months — had to be added to the complainant’s estimated age. The Agency considered that it had applied due diligence to determine the complainant’s age and that, even according to his identity document, he was an adult. 2.7 The complainant appealed the decision by the Agency, reiterating his previous submissions and adding that “some individuals, who had previously threatened him in Sweden due to his newly acquired faith, had now returned to Afghanistan and therefore, his conversion had become known to Afghan authorities”. On 4 September 2014, the Stockholm Migration Court rejected the complainant’s appeal. The Court considered that no circumstances had emerged to suggest that anyone having returned to Afghanistan had shared any information about the complainant with provincial Afghan authorities, and concluded that the complainant’s new allegations were not sufficient to consider that he had plausibly demonstrated his need for international protection. On 29 October 2014, the Migration Court of Appeal rejected the complainant’s request for leave to appeal. The complaint 3. The complainant claims that, if returned to Afghanistan, he would risk being killed or tortured in violation of article 3 of the Convention owing to his conversion to Christianity. He submits that returnees who have converted from Islam are persecuted upon return to Afghanistan and that the Afghan authorities are unable to offer any reasonable protection. He challenges the manner in which the authenticity of his religious beliefs was assessed by the Swedish authorities and notes the difficulty of determining the genuineness of a person’s belief. He notes that, since his conversion on 30 November 2013, he has been a practising Christian; he has attended religious services every Sunday and participated in Bible studies two days a week. He adds that he was already interested in religious issues before leaving Afghanistan and that, while in Sweden, he learned more about Christianity and developed his faith. State party’s observations on admissibility and the merits 4.1 In its submission dated 23 October 2015, the State party claims that the complaint is manifestly unfounded and therefore inadmissible under article 22 (2) of the Convention. 4.2 The State party also contends that the complaint is without merit. With regard to the complainant’s alleged activities in Afghanistan, the State party notes that domestic proceedings concluded that his allegations of his activities in distributing biblical material in his home village were vague and generic. The complainant had also failed to justify why he had agreed to distribute the material, in the light of the existing conflicts between Islam and other religions in his province and throughout Afghanistan. Additionally, domestic courts found it implausible that the complainant had distributed the biblical material in his home village without anyone reacting negatively and that, on the contrary, the complainant had asked his contact for more material to distribute. The State party finds it implausible that there would be a demand for biblical material in the complainant’s home village, given the serious risk run by any person in possession of biblical writings of being identified as a Christian. The State party further notes the discrepancy in the complainant’s account relating to whether he had watched the DVDs with biblical content that he had distributed. In his submission to the Migration Board of 22 August 2013, he stated that he had not been able to watch the DVDs because his family had no electricity at home whereas, in his request for leave to appeal filed on 1 October 2014, he submitted that he had watched the DVDs. The State party concludes that there are serious reasons to question the complainant’s credibility concerning his alleged activities in distributing religious material in Afghanistan. Therefore, the State party submits that the complainant has failed to demonstrate the existence of a threat against him in Afghanistan. 3