CAT/C/59/D/606/2014
without letting him see what it contained. 3 He was subsequently taken back to the
gendarmerie without even seeing the judge.
2.7
On the evening of 12 November 2010, the complainant was taken to Laâyoune
airport along with several other prisoners and was then transferred to Rabat by military
airplane. During the flight, he was forced to lie face down at knifepoint and to wear plastic
handcuffs that cut into his wrists. Upon arrival in Rabat, he was taken to the military court
to be heard by a judge who did not allow him to speak, even though there were signs of
beating and blood on his face. From 12 November 2010 onwards, the complainant was held
in remand detention in Salé 2 prison, where he spent the first night handcuffed to a large
door with iron bars, at first standing and then lying on the ground. He was kept blindfolded
throughout and was hit whenever he moved. On 18 November 2010, he was placed in
solitary confinement for four months and was denied out-of-cell exercise. The complainant
began a hunger strike, and he then had his first medical examination since his arrest. On 9
December 2010, the complainant saw one of his lawyers for the first time and received a
visit from his wife, who had been informed of his arrest by the relatives of other Saharan
detainees. In April 2011, the complainant received authorization to have reading material
but was not given authorization to send or receive correspondence.
2.8
At the two hearings on 12 January and 12 August 2011, the complainant told the
judge that he had been tortured. The complainant consistently denied the acts with which he
had been charged in relation to the violence that occurred during the dismantling of the
Gdeim Izik camp; he explained that he had been forced to sign a document whose contents
were unknown to him. In his ruling of 22 December 2011, the military investigating judge
declared the investigation completed and sent the case to the military court for trial. On 16
February 2013, the complainant was sentenced by the Permanent Military Court of the
Royal Armed Forces in Rabat to 30 years’ imprisonment for forming a criminal gang and
for participating in the violence that led to the premeditated killing of law enforcement
officials, who died while performing their duties in connection with the dismantling of the
Gdeim Izik camp. Twenty-four other Saharans were also prosecuted for the same offences
and sentenced at the end of the trial, which the complainant denounced as generally unfair
and marred by blatant irregularities, including falsification of documents, for example, by
changing the date of his arrest. The authorities stated that the complainant had been arrested
on 8 November — after the Gdeim Izik camp had been dismantled — whereas, in fact, he
had been arrested the day before those events occurred, so could not have taken part in
them. There was no right of appeal against the ruling.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant alleges a violation by the State party of articles 1 and 12 to 16 of
the Convention.
3.2
The complainant maintains that the physical ill-treatment he suffered between 7 and
12 November, at the time of his arrest, during his interrogation at the police station and
later at Laâyoune gendarmerie, and the treatment he received during his transfer by plane
constitute acts of torture because of the severity of the violence inflicted upon him. He
refers in particular to the violent treatment to which he was subjected during the night of 7
to 8 November 2010, with a view to obtaining information about his involvement in the
Gdeim Izik camp and his relationship with the Polisario Front movement. He maintains that
those acts of violence caused him acute suffering for months on end, in particular as a result
of a lack of medical care, and that they constitute a violation of article 1 of the Convention.
3.3
The complainant claims to have been tortured during his hearings before the military
investigating judge and then the military court. He notes that no investigation into this
allegation has ever been opened. Moreover, at the hearing of 12 November 2010, the
investigating judge took no action even though the complainant, who was appearing
without his lawyer, had signs of beating and blood on his face and showed the judge the
bruises on the soles of his feet. The judge failed to record these facts in the minutes of the
3
GE.17-06158
The complainant assumes that these were confessions subsequently presented to the judge as having
been signed by the complainant during his interrogation.
3