CAT/C/31/D/188/2001
Page 3
1.2
Tunisia ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment and made the Declaration under article 22 of the Convention on
23 September 1988.
Facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant states that he was an active member of the Islamist organization
ENNAHDA (formerly MTI). One day in July 1987, at 1.30 a.m., the complainant was arrested
at his home, on the grounds that he belonged to an unauthorized association. He says that, while
he was being arrested, the police manhandled his mother and beat two of his brothers with their
truncheons. The complainant was held for 2 days at the district police station in a dirty cellar
with no water; for 10 days in the holding cells in El Gorjani, from where he was taken daily to
the Jebel Jelloud district police headquarters for questioning; and for one month at the
Bouchoucha detention centre.
2.2
The complainant provides a detailed description of the different types of torture to which
he was subjected.
2.3
The complainant describes what is customarily known as the “roast chicken” position, in
which the victim is stripped naked, his hands tied and his legs folded between his arms, with an
iron bar placed behind his knees, from which he is then suspended between two tables and
beaten, in particular on the soles of his feet, his knees and his head. The complainant says that
he was subjected to this torture for two sessions lasting more than one hour each. He adds that,
during one of these sessions, his torturers also masturbated him to humiliate him and leave him
exhausted.
2.4
The complainant also claims that he was subjected to “chair” torture, in which the victim
is forced to kneel and to hold a chair as high as possible above his head, and is then whipped
whenever he starts to lower the chair.
2.5
Following this, for one month, in the detention centre of the intelligence service in
Bouchoucha, the complainant was subjected to interrogation under torture, namely, the “roast
chicken” position, until he passed out. He adds that, every day, when being escorted from his
cell to the offices, he was struck across the face and hit with truncheons. In addition, according
to the complainant, his family was unable to obtain any information about him and his mother
was detained, for an entire day, in the premises of the Ministry of the Interior for having
requested a meeting with her son. The complainant asserts that he witnessed torture being
inflicted on other detainees, such as Zoussef Bouthelja and Moncef Zarrouk, the latter having
died in his cell on 13 August 1987 as a result of the ill-treatment to which he had been subjected.
2.6
From the end of August to 25 October 1987, the complainant was detained in Tunis
prison in an overcrowded cell with no facilities.
2.7
On 25 October 1987, the complainant was placed in Mornag prison, after being sentenced
to two years’ immediate imprisonment. When the indictment against him was quashed he was
released on 24 December 1987.