CCPR/C/112/D/2117/2011
1.2
On 19 September 2011, the Committee, through its Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, decided to grant the protection measures requested
by the author and asked the State party to refrain from invoking domestic legislation, and
specifically Ordinance No. 06-01 of 27 February 2006 implementing the Charter for Peace
and National Reconciliation, against the author or members of her family on the grounds of
the present communication.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author’s son, Hacen Louddi, who worked as an educator, was questioned by the
police for the first time sometime around 20 March 1995. On that occasion, he was taken to
the police station in El Harrach for questioning, and then released without being charged.
Shortly thereafter, on 9 April 1995, at 2.15 p.m., plain-clothed police officers arrived at
Hacen Louddi’s workplace, the Boumati El-Harrach secondary school, in two unmarked
cars. They asked the principal of the school to summon Hacen Louddi to his office, then
checked his identity papers and led him towards their cars, outside the school premises. The
next day, the principal sent a letter to the head of the Algiers school district informing him
that Hacen Louddi had been arrested.
2.2
According to a number of witnesses, the two cars used during Hacen Louddi’s arrest
belonged to the police, specifically to the Châteauneuf Operational Command Headquarters
(PCO). Several persons detained at the Châteauneuf PCO subsequently confirmed that
Hacen Louddi had been held there for about seven months before he disappeared. 1 He was
seen there for the last time on the night of 18 November 1995 by one of his fellow
detainees, who saw him being taken from his cell.
2.3
Since Hacen Louddi’s arrest on 9 April 1995 and his subsequent disappearance, his
family has never stopped taking action to try to find him. In 1995, the author and her family
filed a complaint with the chief prosecutor at Bir-Mourad-Raïs. On 28 October 1995, the
author sent a complaint to the chief prosecutor at the Court of Tizi-Ouzou. No
investigations have been carried out as a result of these complaints. On 4 February 1996,
Hacen Louddi’s father declared his son’s disappearance to Algerian non-governmental
organizations, resulting in the publication of the latter’s profile on the website AlgeriaWatch. On 28 March 1996, the author wrote to the Minister of Justice. She has never
received a reply.
2.4
On 19 October 1998, the family notified the United Nations Working Group on
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of Hacen Louddi’s case. Despite the Working
Group’s efforts, the State party has provided no clarification about the victim’s fate. 2
2.5
The victim’s spouse, Lamia Louddi, has also made efforts to find her husband: on 29
October 1998, she petitioned the chief prosecutor at the Algiers Court of Justice to institute
proceedings against a person or persons unknown for the crime of abduction. On 12 April
1999, an investigation was launched at the request of the State prosecutor. The latter
interviewed many witnesses who testified to having been detained in the same cell as
Hacen Louddi at the Châteauneuf PCO. One of these witnesses, who was released on 3
June 1995, said that the victim was still at the Châteauneuf PCO on the date when he left.
Another witness reports having seen Hacen Louddi there until he himself was released on
15 November 1995. In a written statement, a third victim said he had seen Hacen Louddi
alive during that period and that he had shared his cell at the Châteauneuf PCO for a month,
1
2
GE.14-22809
During this period, Hacen Louddi was being held, deprived of all contact with the outside world, in
the Châteauneuf PCO, a place of secret detention, torture and summary execution. Furthermore, his
detention has apparently not been recorded in a public register, and no steps have been taken to
inform his family of his whereabouts.
On 19 October 1998, Hacen Louddi’s case was registered by the Working Group as number 0004215.
3