CCPR/C/120/D/2267/2013 Covenant and the Optional Protocol to the Covenant entered into force for the State party on 12 December 1989. The author is represented by the Collectif des familles de disparu(e)s en Algérie. The facts as submitted by the author 2.1 On 20 June 1994, at approximately 5.30 a.m., a large number of police officers surrounded the Khelifati family home. The officers, who were armed and wearing balaclavas and “Ninja” combat dress, belonged to the anti-terrorist squad. Four of them entered the courtyard through the garden. There, they found Youcef Khelifati performing his ablutions before prayers, set about him and threatened to kill him if he moved. They took a sheet that was hanging in front of the house and put it over the victim’s head. Awakened by the noise, the author came down to ask the police officers why they were arresting his son. The officers ordered him back into the house, threatening to shoot him. At that moment, the author recognized the voice of B., the detective superintendent of the criminal investigation task force in Dellys. 2.2 One person witnessed the scene. The police officers left on foot, taking Youcef Khelifati to the Mesrour Ali school, where a white Peugeot 205 was parked. They put the victim in the trunk of the car and drove off. Two other neighbours witnessed his arrest. 2.3 At 7 a.m., that same day, the author went to the police station in Dellys to find out why his son had been arrested. The white Peugeot 205 was parked there. The author recognized Superintendent B., who was wearing the same clothing that he had worn during the arrest. The superintendent flatly denied that Youcef Khelifati had been arrested. 2.4 The next day, the same police officers who had arrested Youcef came back with army units to comb the neighbourhood and forest and to search the house. Over the following years, up until 2000, the police came back to search the family home about every 10 days, without giving the family any explanation as to what they were looking for or to what end. 2.5 On several occasions, inhabitants of Dellys were summoned and questioned about Youcef Khelifati at the Ben Aknoun barracks by plain-clothes police officers. In the author’s opinion, this demonstrates that the police transferred Youcef to the Intelligence and Security Department — the political police in Algeria better known as “military security”. 2.6 On 11 October 1994, the author received a telex from the National Human Rights Observatory (the country’s national human rights institution), informing him that, according to the Directorate General of National Security, Youcef Khelifati, an “active terrorist”, had been killed in July 1994 by the security forces in the mountains of Dellys. The author has always challenged this statement, which he considers to be false given that his son was arrested in front of him. 2.7 The author’s determination to find out the truth has caused harm to the entire family. The Algerian authorities hounded the family, repeatedly harassing and intimidating them. For example, the office where the victim worked was destroyed on the order of the municipal authorities and the water supply to the family home was unexpectedly cut off. In addition, the authorities went after Mohamed Khelifati, Youcef’s younger brother, who was 15 at the time of the events, and subjected him to downright judicial harassment. On several occasions, Mohamed was arrested, carried off and interrogated by naval officers. He suffered physical violence, and, as they beat him, they threatened to “do the same thing” to him that they had done to his brother. According to the author, all these reprisals are the direct consequence of his determination to find out what had happened to his son Youcef. The author adds that the pressure on the family continues to this day and that he very frequently receives letters from various authorities, including the governor of Boumerdès, strongly encouraging him to seek compensation. The governor, knowing that the author is illiterate, even tried to trick him by urging him to sign a death certificate for his disappeared son. To this day, the author refuses point blank to file an application for compensation, which would imply an acknowledgement of the victim’s death. 2.8 The author has contacted the country’s highest authorities in order to find his son. Immediately after the victim’s arrest, the author lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Observatory. He also sent one complaint to the former President, Liamine Zeroual, on 2 GE.17-16622

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