8.  The applicant was born in 1958 and currently resides in Heerlen. 9.  On 2 November 1995 the applicant arrived in the Netherlands, where, on 3 November 1995, he applied for asylum or, alternatively, a residence permit for compelling reasons of a humanitarian nature (klemmende redenen van humanitaire aard). In support of his claim for asylum he submitted the following. 10.  He belonged to the Tamil population group, was married with two children and lived in the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula. This area was controlled by the Tamil Tigers (the “LTTE”), a Tamil terrorist organisation, engaged in an armed struggle for independence. 11.  The applicant owned a minibus which was his livelihood. From January 1994 the LTTE forced him to transport foodstuffs as well as its members two or three times a month. The LTTE would pay for his petrol. In March 1995 the LTTE confiscated his minibus because he had refused to transport bombs for them. They subsequently forced him to work in their kitchens and to help dig trenches. On 21 September 1995 some LTTE members came to his house and told his wife that the applicant had to report to their camp, which meant that he was expected to fight alongside them and to transport their weapons. Upon hearing this, the applicant immediately went into hiding. Since two friends of his, who had also driven his minibus, had recently been shot dead by the LTTE when they had refused to join the LTTE's ranks, the applicant decided to flee to the national capital Colombo. 12.  On 1 October 1995 he went to the army camp at Vavuniya to apply for the required travel pass. He was apprehended and held until 3 October 1995 as he was suspected of being an LTTE supporter. He was taken to a mill where he was undressed and beaten with a small iron rod. This left a horizontal scar of about five centimetres in length on the heel of his right foot. He was also stabbed with a knife, leaving a number of scars on the underside of his forearms, and a cigarette was put out on his left arm, leaving a round scar. His hands were tied and he was strung up and beaten. After two days he was made to stand in a line. A man wearing a black mask walked past the people in the line, indicating the moment he recognised somebody. This man was an informant. The applicant was not recognised. He was released and issued with a travel pass on condition that he return from Colombo within one week. 13.  He travelled to Colombo by train. In Colombo he stayed at the house of an acquaintance for one month without leaving the house as he feared arrest by the army. A doctor came to the house to see to his injuries. As he was not allowed to settle in Colombo, and he could not go back to Jaffna because of his problems with the LTTE, he decided to leave the country. An acquaintance of his father's arranged for his flight to Amsterdam via Bombay. He left the country using his own passport, but the “travel agent” kept his passport in Bombay. 14.  After his arrival in the Netherlands on 2 November 1995, he was interviewed by an official of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst) on 6 December 1995. According to this official, the scars which the applicant showed him were much more than two months' old, and the round scar on the applicant's left forearm was bigger than the diameter of a cigarette. 15.  On 5 January 1996 the Deputy Minister of Justice (Staatssecretaris van Justitie) rejected the applicant's requests. It was noted that it had not appeared that the Sri Lankan authorities had such grave presumptions against the applicant that he could be said to have a well-founded fear of persecution. Although he had once been detained for a short period, there had been no evidence against him of any LTTE involvement. The fact that the applicant had been able to leave his country using his own passport also did not suggest that the applicant had to fear persecution. Finally, according to a country report (ambtsbericht) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 15 December 1995, Tamils coming from the Jaffna peninsula were able to find safety in the centre, south and west of Sri Lanka. 16.  The Deputy Minister further informed the applicant that he would not be allowed to remain in the Netherlands pending the consideration of any objection (bezwaar) he might wish to submit against the decision to refuse his requests. 17.  The applicant filed on objection on 10 January 1996 and, on the same date, also applied for an interim measure (voorlopige voorziening) to the President of the Regional Court (arrondissementsrechtbank) of The Hague. By letter of 10 May 1996, the applicant was informed that his expulsion would in fact be suspended while his objection was being considered. The applicant withdrew his request for an interim measure. 18.  The applicant's objection was rejected by the Deputy Minister of Justice on 5 November 1996. He was also informed that he would not be allowed to remain in the Netherlands pending the examination of any appeal he might lodge. On 11 December 1997 the applicant lodged an appeal with the Regional Court of The Hague and at the same time requested an interim measure from the President of that court. By final decision of 9 July 1997, the acting President of the Regional Court of The Hague rejected the applicant's appeal against the Deputy Minister's decision as well as his request for an interim measure. 19.  Following this decision, an expulsion order was issued to the Aliens Police (vreemdelingendienst) in the applicant's place of residence on 16 July 1997. However, the applicant did not leave the country and neither was he forcibly expelled. 20.  On 5 September 1997 he lodged a new request for a residence permit based on compelling reasons of a humanitarian nature. Finding that the applicant had not submitted any new facts or circumstances which invalidated the decision of the Regional Court of 9 July 1997, the Deputy Minister of Justice rejected this request on 24 April 1998. In his objection to this decision, the applicant argued that, according to information that had recently become available, some groups of Tamils in Colombo ran an increased risk of persecution or treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention. The applicant submitted that he belonged to one of these identified “risk categories”, given that he came from Jaffna, spoke no Sinhalese, was suspected of LTTE membership, had already been detained for more than 48 hours on the basis of that suspicion and had been seriously ill-treated on that occasion. 21.  The Deputy Minister rejected the objection on 8 December 1998. Referring to domestic case-law, the Deputy Minister held that merely belonging to one of the “risk categories” was an insufficient basis on which to accept that Article 3 of the Convention might be violated if the applicant was expelled. Since it had not appeared that, in addition to belonging to one of the “risk categories”, any other special circumstances existed which could give rise to the assumption that the Sri Lankan authorities wished to apprehend the applicant, he was not eligible for residence in the Netherlands. As regards the applicant's argument that the Deputy Minister of Justice ought to have sought the advice of the Ministry's Medical Adviser to have his scars examined, it was held that such a step would only have been called for if doubts existed as to the truthfulness of the applicant's account, which was not the case. The Deputy Minister also informed the applicant that he would not be allowed to remain in the Netherlands pending the examination of any appeal he might lodge against this decision. 22.  By letter of 5 January 1999, the applicant appealed to the Regional Court of The Hague against the decision of 8 December 1998. In order to prevent his expulsion, he also requested an interim measure from the President of that court. 23.  In his appeal, the applicant argued that he did run an increased risk of being subjected to treatment contrary to Article 3 if expelled, because he had given practical assistance to the LTTE. His chances of being apprehended were also increased, given that he had no identity card, no fixed address and no accommodation. If he was arrested and detained for a second time, he would certainly not be treated well or released after only a few days. There would, on the contrary, be a great likelihood that he would be killed. Moreover, arrested Tamils ran a real risk of being tortured if their bodies bore signs of military training or deployment, such as grazes or scars. 24.  In addition, the applicant lodged a request for revision (herziening) of the Deputy Minister's decision of 8 December 1998, submitting that the fact that he bore scars increased the risk of being subjected to torture, and informing the Deputy Minister that a member of Amnesty International's Medical Examination Group was going to conduct an examination of his scars. In the applicant's submission, this development required the Deputy Minister to review the decision of 8 December 1998. 25.  On 16 September 1999 the Regional Court of The Hague rejected the applicant's appeal of 5 January 1999 in a judgment delivered orally. The Regional Court found that the applicant had failed to adduce new facts or changed circumstances, and added that the matter of the applicant's scars had already been taken into account in the determination of his first requests. In view of this decision, the applicant's request for an interim measure was declared inadmissible. 26.  Following the Regional Court's judgment, an expulsion order was issued to the Aliens Police on 28 October 1999. 27.  By decision of 4 January 2000, the application for revision of the Deputy Minister's decision of 8 December 1998 was dismissed by that authority. 28.  On 11 January 2000 the applicant was examined by a physician belonging to Amnesty International's Medical Examination Group. The applicant's lawyer had put the following questions to the physician:
-  could the applicant's scars be linked to the torture he had undergone?
-  was the applicant traumatised as a result of his experiences in Sri Lanka? 29.  In his report, the physician described, inter alia, the scars he had noted on the applicant's body. There were a number of horizontal scars, three to six centimetres in length and differing in width, on the underside of the forearms (four on the left and one on the right), consistent with unsutured, open wounds, possibly caused by knives. There were also two round scars on the right forearm and one round scar on the left forearm, with a diameter of 10 millimetres, consistent with burns, possibly caused by the putting out of a cigarette. Finally, there was a round scar, sensitive to pressure, 15 millimetres in diameter, and level with the Achilles tendon of the right foot, from which ran a three-centimetre scar outwardly with clear traces of sutures. In the conclusion to his report, the physician answered the questions put by the applicant's lawyer in the affirmative.