CCPR/C/112/D/2086/2011
violations of articles 2 (para. 3) and 7 of the Covenant. The authors are represented by
Philippe Grant of TRIAL.
1.2
On 17 August 2011, the Committee, through its Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, decided to grant the protection measures which had
been requested by the authors and asked the State party to refrain from invoking national
legislation, including Ordinance No. 06-01, of 27 February 2006, on the implementation of
the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, against the authors and members of their
family on the grounds of the present communication. On 7 October 2011, the Committee,
through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures, decided not
to examine the admissibility of the communication separately from the merits.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
On 12 August 1994, at 9 a.m., Sahraoui Ayache was arrested at his home in
Constantine by a group of uniformed soldiers and plainclothes military security personnel
who were carrying out a large-scale operation in response to the killing of two soldiers in
the Constantine region. The members of the security services entered all the homes in the
neighbourhood in which Sahraoui Ayache lived and made the men leave their homes
quickly, not even leaving them the time to get dressed or to put on shoes. Sahraoui
Ayache’s father witnessed his arrest, as well as the arrests of neighbours and family
members who lived in the area. The arrested persons were rounded up outside and some of
them, including Sahraoui Ayache, were taken by lorry to an unknown place of detention.
The authors contend that the security services never produced an arrest warrant and did not
state the grounds for Sahraoui Ayache’s arrest.
2.2
The authors further contend that Sahraoui Ayache and his 17 fellow detainees were
subjected to dreadful conditions of detention: 18 men were crammed into a 4 square metre
cell where they were forced to remain standing for lack of space in the stifling August heat.
In just one day, most of them died. The bodies were removed, wrapped in blankets and
loaded onto an army lorry. There were very few survivors and the authors note that
Sahraoui Ayache may have died at that time, although they cannot be sure of it. A few
months after the arrest, the family received an unexpected visit from a military officer who
said that Sahraoui Ayache was still alive and that he was being held in a military prison in
the city, but it was impossible to verify this information. To date, no one knows his fate or
his whereabouts or those of his remains.
2.3
During the weeks following the arrest of Sahraoui Ayache, his family contacted the
Algerian authorities in order to find out what had happened to him. The authors went to the
various police and gendarmerie units of Constantine to ask whether Sahraoui Ayache was
being held there, but their enquiries led nowhere. They even went to check the morgue of
the Constantine hospital but they did not find Sahraoui Ayache’s body among the corpses
of detainees that were being kept there. On 15 October 1994, his mother wrote to the chief
of the fifth military region of Mansoura to find out whether her son was being held under its
jurisdiction, but her letter was refused and returned unopened.1
2.4
Aïcha Dehimi also made various attempts through administrative and legal channels
to find out what had happened to Sahraoui Ayache. On 18 December 1994, she wrote to the
wali (provincial governor) of Constantine but never received a reply. On 19 February 1995,
she sent a letter to the State prosecutor. On 22 May 1995, she filed a petition with the
prosecutor at the Court of Constantine, which was registered by the Court, and, on 23 July
1995, she was informed by the Directorate General of National Security that the
investigation into the disappearance of her son had not produced any results. On 21 May
1
GE.14-21909
The authors attach a copy of the acknowledgement that, on 19 October 1994, the addressee refused to
accept the letter and that it had been returned to sender.
3