CAT/C/57/D/551/2013
arrest report. Whereas he was actually arrested at his home in a town near Tunis on 1
September 2009, the report states that he was arrested in a street in Tunis on 6 September
2009. On 9 September, i.e. three days after the official date of his arrest, the prosecutor
authorized the extension of his custody until 11 September, without even having seen him.
2.5
On 11 September 2009, the complainant was taken before an investigating judge,
who told him that he could not question him there and then because of the appalling state of
the complainant’s health. The complainant was accompanied by three lawyers, and his wife
was present in the court. They all saw the marks of blows on the complainant’s body.2 The
complainant described the torture he had undergone to the investigating judge. The latter
told him he should just file a complaint with the prosecutor and ordered him to be placed in
detention in Mornaguia prison.
2.6
On 12 September 2009, the complainant was examined by a doctor in Mornaguia
prison. During the consultation, the complainant talked about the torture to which he had
been subjected. The doctor got him to sign a paper testifying that he had been tortured in
the 10 days leading up to his imprisonment. 3 When the complainant next saw the
investigating judge, on 18 September 2009, the complainant showed him the marks of the
physical abuse he had suffered and again recounted the acts of torture to which he had been
subjected. One of his lawyers insisted that the judge mention the traces of torture in the
minutes of the questioning, but the judge refused. At each hearing by the investigating
judge, the complainant retracted the confession he had signed under torture. But none of the
minutes prepared by the investigating judge make any mention of the torture allegations.
On 26 September 2009, one of the complainant’s lawyers filed a complaint with the Tunis
public prosecutor about the torture of his client. 4 No action was ever taken over this
complaint, although it was registered.
2.7
On 31 October 2011, over two years after the complainant’s arrest, the Tunis court
of first instance ruled against the complainant.5 In front of the judges and in the presence of
his three lawyers, the complainant again denounced the torture to which he had been
subjected. Despite this, and on the basis of the confession extracted by torture, the court
sentenced him to 22 years in prison on a number of counts, including criminal conspiracy.
It also sentenced him to 10 years in prison in another case involving trafficking in
limousines. On 22 December 2011, one of his lawyers filed a new complaint for torture
with the Tunis public prosecutor, pointing out that no action had been taken over the earlier
complaint and that his client had been convicted on the basis of a confession extracted by
torture. The lawyer asked for an investigation into the acts of torture, for his client to be
given a medical examination and for the confession to be struck out by the judge hearing
the appeal.
2
3
4
5
GE.16-13706
The complainant provides an undated letter from his lawyer which confirms that, during the hearing,
the complainant told the judge that his confession had been extracted by torture and that he had filed a
complaint in September 2009 that had never been processed. The complainant also declared that
another complaint had been filed concerning his unlawful arrest and his torture during questioning.
The complainant asked the judge to exclude the confession obtained by torture, but the judge had
taken no account of his statements. Consequently, according to the lawyer, the court had handed
down an unjust and unlawful judgment. The complainant also provides an undated letter from another
lawyer that points out that the latter had raised the complainant’s allegations of torture with the
investigating judge and that the complainant had stressed how he had been treated and had even
shown the investigating judge the signs of torture on his body.
The document (in Arabic) that the doctor had him sign is included in the file.
The complainant refers to the complaint in Arabic attached to the file.
The complainant refers to excerpts in Arabic from the court’s judgment, which are attached to the file.
According to the complainant, the judge cited his confession as one of the grounds for his conviction.
3