CCPR/C/118/D/2157/2012
and many other people arrested in similar circumstances had still been at the military
detention centre at the time of their release.
2.7
The next day, the victim’s wife, together with the victim’s elder brother, Youssef
Belamrania, therefore went to the El Milia barracks to enquire about his fate and request his
release. The soldier on duty at the entrance of the barracks told them that no one was being
detained there and, when they insisted, threatened to “eliminate” them if they persisted in
their efforts to find out the truth.
2.8
Over the next few days, the victim’s wife and other members of the family made
many attempts to inform the local military authorities of the arrest and to request them to
take action to release Mohammed Belamrania. Each time, their request was rejected.
2.9
On 24 July 1995, i.e. 11 days after Mohammed Belamrania’s arrest, his brother
Youssef Belamrania was informed by a relative that the corpses of several persons who had
been summarily executed by members of the Fifth Airborne Battalion stationed at the El
Milia barracks had been dumped onto the side of the road in a place called Tenfdour and
that one of the corpses had light brown hair and could be that of his brother. Youssef
Belamrania, together with other members of the family, went to the scene and was able to
identify his brother, Mohammed Belamrania, among the many mutilated corpses dumped at
the side of the national highway. The victim, whose hands were tied behind his back with
metal wire, was riddled with bullets and bore unmistakable signs of torture. All the other
bodies found in the same place also showed signs of torture and mutilation.
2.10 Youssef Belamrania immediately went to the central police station of El Milia,
where he notified the authorities of the discovery of the mutilated bodies, including that of
his brother. After a long wait, the police had the civil protection services remove the
numerous bodies to the morgue of the local hospital of El Milia.
2.11 Youssef Belamrania also went to the court of El Milia to notify the public prosecutor
of the discovery of the bodies of the victims who had been shot to death, hoping that the
public prosecutor would take action on the matter. He told him of the many witnesses who
knew about the execution of a large number of victims carried out by the paratroopers by
the side of the highway. The public prosecutor merely requested Mohammed Belamrania’s
relatives to return to the hospital morgue for positive identification of the body in the
presence of the police.
2.12 After performing the identification, the family requested an autopsy to determine the
cause of death for legal purposes and asked for the body to be returned to them for burial at
El Kennar cemetery. At that stage, the police officers, on the instructions of the public
prosecutor, demanded the payment of 120,000 Algerian dinars in return for the body and a
written acknowledgement that the victim belonged to a terrorist group. The author stresses
that racketeering of this kind was particularly widespread in the country, with the national
security forces engaged in outright blackmail of the families of victims of summary
executions.
2.13 In response to the unanimous protests of the relatives and their refusal to pay the
amount demanded by the police or to sign the acknowledgement demanded of them, the
body was eventually returned to the family without an autopsy being conducted. The coffin
was sealed by the police with a ban on opening it; the relatives received a burial permit
issued by the public prosecutor of El Milia along with a permit to transport the mortal
remains.4
2.14 Although where a violent death was concerned the public prosecutor’s office was
required to order an autopsy, the victim’s body was buried at El Kennar cemetery without
the autopsy requested by the family being conducted. 5
2.15 The victim left behind a widow and 10 underage children. The eldest, Rafik
Belamrania, the author of this communication, was 16 years old at the time and his
4
5
GE.17-04240
The author has included the relevant documents in the file.
The written burial permit issued by the public prosecutor attached to the El Milia court states that “it
is not useful, for the establishment of the truth, to delay the interment of Mohammed Belamrania’s
remains”.
3