CCPR/C/116/D/2297/2013
The author was also deprived of food and, on his release from incommunicado detention,
was found to have lost more than 11 kilograms in 20 days. During each interrogation, he
was systematically beaten for hours on end by one or more officers, who punched, slapped,
insulted, spat at and kicked him.
2.6
In addition, the author was humiliated. On one occasion, when he naively requested
a bucket of water so that he could wash, he was forced to kneel and then surrounded by
military security officers who urinated on him to give him a “shower”. The author also
describes being ordered to strip and remain naked in full view of everyone and even to go
to sleep in that state. He underwent endless interrogations, during which he was always
naked and kneeling, with his hands behind his back and his head against the wall.
2.7
On 28 September 2009, as part of the preliminary investigation they were
undertaking, the DRS criminal investigation officers obtained a warrant from the public
prosecutor at Hussein-Dey Court, which is within the jurisdiction of the Court of Algiers,
authorizing them to search the premises of Oriflamme, a company owned by the author.
The search was carried out on 4 October 2009 in the presence of the author’s nephew and
of another employee, but without the author himself, who was, however, available since he
was being held in police custody. During the search, a sum of money was seized, a fact
noted down in the record of the search. On the other hand, a computer belonging to the
author was also seized but is not referred to among the evidence listed in the criminal case
file.
2.8
The author was brought before the public prosecutor at Sidi M’hamed Court on 6
October 2009, then questioned during the night of 6 to 7 October (from midnight until 4
a.m.) by the investigating judge of the ninth chamber of the specialized criminal court,
which has its seat in Sidi M’hamed. He was then placed in pretrial detention. He was
formally charged with offences linked to the corruption surrounding the construction of the
Algerian East-West Highway.
2.9
The author emphasizes that several stages of the criminal proceedings were
dispatched in a single day, on 6 October 2009. For example, the report on the preliminary
investigation, which was subsequently included in the case file, states that the investigation
was opened on 28 September and completed on 6 October 2009. This report was
transmitted, on 6 October 2009, to the public prosecutor at Bir Mourad Raïs Court, who
relinquished jurisdiction and referred the case on the same day to the public prosecutor at
Sidi M’hamed Court. Also on 6 October 2009, the Chief Prosecutor at the Court of Algiers
wrote to the public prosecutor at Sidi M’hamed Court instructing him to open a criminal
investigation into a number of persons, the author among them, on several charges,
including criminal conspiracy, using improper influence, corruption and money-laundering.
2.10 On 6 June 2011, the investigating judge, considering that the criminal investigation
into the author and his co-accused in the East-West Highway affair was complete, issued an
order closing the investigation and sending the file to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office for
submission by the latter to the Indictments Chamber, so that the accused could be
committed for trial before the competent criminal court. In July 2011, the Indictments
Chamber requested additional information from the investigating judge. On 16 November
2011, the Indictments Chamber handed down its order, committing the accused, including
the author, for trial before the criminal court. On 20 November 2011, the author filed an
application for judicial review of this order, without, however, having a copy of the order,
which was not made available to his lawyers until 30 January 2012.
2.11 The author lodged a complaint of arbitrary detention with the Chief Prosecutor at the
Court of Algiers on 31 October 2011, filing an application on the same grounds with the
Indictments Chamber on 2 November 2011. The author was informed that his complaint
had been rejected by the public prosecutor at Sidi M’hamed Court because the same legal
GE.16-07656
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