CAT/C/61/D/654/2015
him cough up water. They put the detainee back in the roast chicken position and proceeded
to strike him, particularly on the sexual organs. The torture session continued until about
7.45 p.m.
2.5
At the end of the day, Rached Jaïdane finished writing a dictated confession, in
which he admitted to having been trained in the martial arts at the Parisian faculty of
Jussieu, to knowing Mohamed Koussaï Jaïbi, and to having reached an agreement with the
Islamist opponent Salah Karker.
2.6
At about 7.45 p.m., Rached Jaïdane was taken down to cell No. 8 located in the
basement of the Ministry. The cell, which measured about 3.5 by 4 metres, contained a
mattress and a hole in the floor which served as a toilet. The complainant shared the cell for
several days with a fellow detainee. During the subsequent 20 days in custody, Rached
Jaïdane continued to be beaten with fists and clubs and to be subjected to threats with a
view to compelling him to sign a new series of confession statements. The abuse was less
severe than that inflicted during the first 17 hours of custody. One of the officers told
Rached Jaïdane that it was thanks to the doctor’s intervention that the abuse had diminished
after the first day. The detainee had lost consciousness several times on the day after his
arrest and could not remember having seen a doctor.
2.7
The torture ceased on the twentieth day of custody for reasons unknown to Rached
Jaïdane. On the thirtieth day, an official working for the Intelligence Service, a childhood
friend of Rached Jaïdane, came to the custody wing of the Ministry of the Interior to bring
in a new detainee. He recognized Rached Jaïdane and came over to talk to him. He
requested that the complainant should see a doctor, but the nursing officer, nicknamed
“Sabromicine”, simply gave him analgesics and betadine to disinfect his wounds. Rached
Jaïdane remained in detention at the Ministry of the Interior from 30 July to 4 September
1993, the date of his first appearance before an investigating judge. He was arbitrarily
detained for 37 days and maintained in custody for far longer than the legally prescribed
period. The Code of Criminal Procedure that was in force at the time limited custody to
four days, a period that was renewable once and could be extended by two additional days
in exceptional circumstances. The maximum period was thus 10 days. Moreover, the failure
to notify his family of his detention at the Ministry of the Interior constituted a breach of
the Code of Criminal Procedure. He remained in incommunicado detention in the Ministry,
which is not an official detention centre.
The trial
2.8
On 4 September 1993, after 37 days in custody at the Ministry of the Interior,
Rached Jaïdane was taken to the Ariana court of first instance together with his fellow
detainee. The two of them encountered another alleged accomplice in the court cells. He
had also been tortured at the Ministry of the Interior, at the instigation of the same officers.3
The detainees were brought before a first investigating judge, Mostafa Mbazaa, who was
shocked by their condition and refused to take the case, invoking the lack of evidence. The
three detainees were placed in pretrial detention on the same day in the 9 April Prison.
Rached Jaïdane still bore traces of torture on arriving at the prison.
2.9
With a view to backing up the custody file, Rached Jaïdane was returned to the
Ministry of the Interior on 20 September 1993 for interrogation by two officers. He signed
the interrogation record under threat of further torture. 4 A few days later, he was returned to
the court with the other accused and they appeared, one by one, before the third
investigating judge. Rached Jaïdane still bore traces of torture, including a cigarette burn on
his left hand and evidence of an extracted right thumbnail. He was still limping and
bleeding from the anus because of the rape he had suffered while in custody. Judge Ben
3
4
GE.17-16785
The complainant attached a witness statement by Mr. Koussai Jaïbi, describing the state in which he
discovered Rached Jaïdane on that day, bearing visible signs of torture.
According to the record, the complainant allegedly stated, inter alia, that he had joined the Ennahda
party in the early 1980s, that he had distributed party leaflets, and that, on settling in Paris in the
1990s, he had established ties with an individual who would become a close ally, and who would
keep him informed and involve him in actions aimed at toppling the existing regime and installing an
Islamist regime through armed revolutionary action.
3