CAT/C/34/D/194/2001
page 3
who brought her before the examining magistrate in the Paris procurator’s Anti-Terrorist
Section. She was later charged with possession of false administrative documents and
participation in a criminal association and was immediately imprisoned.
2.2
On 12 February 1999, the complainant was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, one
of them suspended, for the above- mentioned offences. She appealed to the Paris Court of
Appeal.
2.3
On 31 August 1999, the Minister of the Interior issued an order for her expulsion from
French territory as a matter of absolute urgency, which was not served on her immediately.
2.4
On 12 October 1999, the Paris Court of Appeal sentenced her without the right to appeal
to three years’ imprisonment, one of them suspended, and five years’ ban on entry into France, in
respect of the charges against her.
2.5
The complainant was due to be released on 28 October 1999. She says that, fearing
torture by the Spanish security forces and in order to prevent her expulsion to Spain, she began a
hunger strike on 28 September 1999. She states that, as a result of her very poor state of health
following her long hunger strike, she weighed only 39 kilos and was therefore taken to the
Fresnes prison hospital.
2.6
At 6 a.m. on 28 October 1999, the day of the complainant’s release, the French police
served her with the expulsion order issued on 31 August 1999 by the Minister of the Interior, as
well as a second decision taken on 27 October 1999 by the Prefect of Val de Marne, specifying
Spain as the country of destination. The complainant was immediately taken in an ambulance by
the French police from Fresnes prison to the Franco-Spanish border post of La Junquera for
expulsion to Spain, and then taken to the Bellvitge hospital in Barcelona.
2.7
The complainant alleges that she was arrested by the Spanish Civil Guard at her home in
Hernani, Gipuzkoa, on 30 March 2001 and that on the following day, while being held in
custody, she was urgently transferred to the San Carlos hospital in Madrid, where she remained
until 7 p.m., because of torture inflicted on her: beatings, la bolsa, 1 touching and attachment of
electrodes to her body. She adds that she was subjected to 16 hours of questioning and
continuous violence, and held in custody without contact with her lawyer or her family for more
than five days before being brought before a judge.
2.8
The complainant alleges that on the same day, 31 March 2001, in the presence of an
examining magistrate and a court-appointed lawyer, she was obliged to make a statement which
the Civil Guards had forced her to learn by heart, by threatening further torture.
2.9
The complainant points out that on 4 April 2001, before the National High Court, she
refused to enter a plea and complained of the torture she had suffered. An order to imprison her
then arrived, and she was taken to the Soto del Real prison. Following her arrest, she was
accused of participating in several acts of violence.