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Mechraâ-Sfa gendarmerie. The man explained that he had been released the same day,
having been detained at the same facility, where he had met Djilali Hanafi. He said that
they had been held in a concrete cell of two square metres that was shared by more than 10
people. Djilali Hanafi was shivering heavily and constantly vomiting following the torture
to which he had just been subjected. Other detainees confirmed the conditions of detention
and Djilali Hanafi’s state of health. They added that they banged on the door the whole
night to draw the guards’ attention in the hope that they would assist the victim. It was not
until late the following morning that a gendarme came to take him out of the cell to get
some air. He never received medical attention.
2.2
Having heard where his son was being detained, Djilali Hanafi’s father went to the
Mechraâ-Sfa gendarmerie and requested to see him, asking the reasons for his detention.
The chief of the gendarmerie denied his request. His father then appealed to the
gendarmerie captain in charge, the chief’s superior, asking him to release his son. He too
denied the request. On 3 November 1998 the victim’s father returned to the gendarmerie
headquarters with one of his sons. The gendarmes, who the previous day had refused to
give the slightest information on Djilali Hanafi, released him that evening. He was in a
lamentable state and had obviously been subjected to serious ill-treatment. Unable to walk
upright, he was carried to his home in a gendarmerie vehicle.
2.3
As it was already night, and because of the troubles and insecurity in the country, the
family decided to wait until morning to bring Djilali Hanafi to the hospital, which was
located 30 kilometres from their home. On the night of 3 November 1998, a few hours after
being handed over to his family, the victim died from his injuries, in extreme agony. In his
misery, he repeated time and again that the gendarmes had beaten him and had killed him.
At about 8 o’clock in the morning, the gendarmes came to the family house and asked the
victim’s wife for the family civil-status record book so that the chief of the gendarmerie
could fill in the death certificate. The complainant considers that this proves beyond any
doubt to what extent the officers concerned were sure that the beatings inflicted on Djilali
Hanafi while in detention would inevitably kill him.
2.4
On 4 November 1998 at around 3 p.m. the family was preparing to leave home for
the cemetery to bury the deceased when gendarmes arrived and asked them to postpone the
burial and transfer the victim’s remains to the Youssef Damerdji hospital in Tiaret for an
autopsy. According to information received verbally from members of the medical corps,
the autopsy had been ordered by the Tiaret State prosecutor when signing the burial permit,
noting that the death certificate had mentioned the victim’s “suspicious death”. An autopsy
was conducted the following day, and the body was returned to the family that afternoon.
They brought it home, then to the cemetery for burial. Despite numerous requests to the
authorities, the family never received a copy of the autopsy report. They received only a
copy of the death certificate. The causes of death were not specified, but it did contain the
entry “suspicious death”.
2.5
After the victim’s death, his family brought the case to the attention of the office of
the public prosecutor working in the competent courts for their district, both civil and
military, challenging the arbitrary arrest and torture followed by the death of the victim, to
no avail. On 12 January 1999 the complainant filed a case with the State prosecutor at the
Tiaret court. However, she never received a reply from the authorities. Throughout 2000,
the members of the victim’s family also brought the case before the Tiaret prosecutor, the
commander of the military sector, the commander of the national gendarmerie in Tiaret and
the Ministry of Justice, but their complaints elicited no response. In 2006 the family
undertook the procedure established by the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation
in order to secure State assistance for compensating the death of a family member during
the time of unrest. A complete application was submitted with the Tiaret wilaya security
office. Both the complainant and the victim’s parents were questioned by the Mechraâ-Sfa
GE.11-43885
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