CCPR/C/116/D/2297/2013
Articles of the Covenant:
2 (3), 7, 9, 10, 12 and 14
Articles of the Optional Protocol:
2 and 5 (2 (b))
1.
The author of the communication is Mejdoub Chani, born on 5 January 1952 in Aïn
Sefra, Algeria, who is currently incarcerated in Serkadji prison, Algiers. He claims that he
is the victim of violations by Algeria of articles 7, 9, 10, 12 and 14 of the Covenant, read
alone or in conjunction with article 2, paragraph 3.1 He is represented by William Bourdon
(Bourdon & Forestier, Paris) and Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture-France
(ACAT-France).
Factual background2
2.1
The author is a resident of Luxembourg with dual Algerian and Luxembourg
nationality and works as an international consultant and fiduciary adviser. In the course of
his professional activities as head of a company named ADC Conseil, he is constantly
called upon to provide economic and financial advice.
2.2
The author was stopped by the border police at Algiers airport on 16 September
2009 and questioned about his identity and activities. He was then arrested on 17
September 2009 at his hotel, the El-Djazaïr, by local officers of the Algiers criminal
investigation department, which is part of the Intelligence and Security Department (DRS).
His family had no news of him for 20 days, during which time he was not heard from.
2.3
Lacking any information concerning the author, who she knew had travelled to
Algiers to celebrate Eid, his wife had no alternative but to address an appeal, in vain, to the
Consul-General of Algeria in Brussels (who represents that country’s interests in
Luxembourg).3 In her letter, she stated that she had had no news of her husband since she
had tried to contact him on 24 September 2009. His family would later learn that the author
had been formally charged in a criminal matter, thus creating the appearance, a posteriori,
of a criminal investigation under ordinary law. He was arrested in connection with the socalled East-West Highway affair, also known as the “corruption scandal of the century”, a
case that is manifestly political in nature.
2.4
The author was reportedly held incommunicado for 20 days at an unknown location
(he would later learn that he had been detained at the premises of the DRS criminal
investigation department). In a handwritten account transmitted to his family, he stated that,
during those 20 days, he had no opportunity to communicate with family members or with
a lawyer and that he had been illegally confined, assaulted and subjected to unbearable
physical and psychological pressure. Questioned at all hours of the day and night, he was
regularly insulted and struck to make him “confess”. The author’s interrogators regularly
placed his mobile telephone on the table, letting it ring and ring but ensuring that the battery
remained charged, thus using the distress of his relatives, who were without news of him
and trying constantly to reach him, to pressure him beyond endurance.
2.5
To secure his “confession”, the author was also deprived of sleep, making him lose
his sense of time. The DRS criminal investigation officers no longer even took the trouble
to conceal this ill-treatment, which is clear, inter alia, from the record of the hearing before
the investigating judge, which took place between midnight and 4 a.m. on 7 October 2009. 4
1
2
3
4
2
This claim under article 2, paragraph 3, was added by the author in his comments of 27 March 2014.
This factual background is based on the author’s initial communication and subsequent submissions
and on the documents annexed thereto.
Letter dated 29 September 2009.
A copy of the record was provided by the author.
GE.16-07656