CAT/C/62/D/496/2012 which the complainant or his family might be exposed, particularly as a result of having submitted this complaint, and to keep the Committee informed of the measures taken to that end. The facts as submitted by the complainant 2.1 The complainant was working as a driver in the city of Cibitoke at the time of the events in question. On 15 February 2008, at around 10 a.m., the complainant was in front of his house, talking with his cousin about abuse that the cousin had been subjected to a few minutes earlier. The complainant’s cousin was telling him that the governor of Cibitoke Province, Mr. Zéphyrin Barutwanayo, had stopped him on the Buganda-Murwi road half an hour earlier and confiscated the registration documents of the vehicle he was driving. While the complainant and his cousin were talking about this incident, the governor, escorted by four uniformed police officers, pulled up in a pickup truck and again ordered the complainant’s cousin to give him his vehicle registration documents, even though they had been taken from him shortly before. The governor then ordered one of the four police officers to take the keys to the complainant’s cousin’s car and make the cousin get in the back of the truck without telling him why. The complainant then intervened on behalf of his cousin by asking the governor to let his cousin drive the car to where he was told rather than turn it over to the police officers. The governor, angered by the challenge to his orders, then ordered the complainant, too, into the back of the truck. 2.2 The complainant, refusing, crossed the street. The governor ordered three of the police officers to make him get in by force. After having grabbed him by the arms, they threw him onto the bed of the truck. The complainant landed face-first, hitting his head. The blow broke his glasses. The complainant nonetheless managed to pull himself out of the truck, but when the governor noticed, he ordered the three police officers to immobilize him, beat him and make him get back in. 2.3 One of the police officers struck him on the legs and feet with the butt of his rifle about ten times in an attempt to force them into the truck. The beating was so violent that the complainant fell to the ground. While the complainant was on the ground behind the truck and surrounded by police officers, the governor ordered them to beat him. The complainant claims that he was beaten for half an hour by the police officers, who hit him all over with the butts of their rifles and their truncheons. One of them struck him with the butt of his rifle on his right ankle and threatened him with his pistol in order to force him back into the truck.1 2.4 The complainant was in a critical condition and covered in blood when passers-by began to gather around the truck. Under increasing pressure from the crowd, the police officers stopped beating the complainant and left with the truck and the cousin’s vehicle. The complainant was left lying on the ground, covered in blood and unable to stand up. 2.5 The passers-by who had stopped at the scene of the violence placed the complainant in a vehicle and took him to Prince Regent Charles Hospital in Bujumbura. The complainant had injuries all over his body. They required care immediately and for several weeks thereafter. The doctors carried out a number of tests and, after using various external methods to treat his ankle, to no avail, the attending physician prescribed an X-ray. 2 Although the doctors were of the view that the complainant would need to stay in the 1 2 2 The complainant provides a statement that his cousin made to the complainant’s representative in the case before the Committee. In the relevant parts of this undated statement, his cousin explains that the police officers took the complainant by the arms and “flung him into the back of the truck”, in such a way that he “landed on his face and broke his glasses”. He also mentions that the complaint “was pummelled while he was down. The governor’s escort hit him on his legs and feet with the butt of his rifle.” The complainant’s cousin also states that he paid a fine and was imprisoned from 18 to 21 February 2008 for having “overloaded his car” and stoked the animosity of the crowd towards the governor. The complainant provides several bills for hospitalization and medicine. He has also transmitted a medical certificate dated 27 February 2008 showing that he sustained an injury to his right ankle, resulting in considerable bruising. The medical certificate states that the X-ray showed a severe contusion of the soft tissues of the right ankle, not a fracture of the bone. GE.18-00818

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