CAT/C/51/D/376/2009
Annex
Decision of the Committee against Torture under article 22 of
the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (fifty-first session)
concerning
Communication No. 376/2009
Submitted by:
Djamila Bendib, represented by Alkarama for
Human Rights
Alleged victim:
Mounir Hammouche (the complainant’s son)
State party:
Algeria
Date of complaint:
12 January 2009 (initial submission)
The Committee against Torture, established under article 17 of the Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Meeting on 8 November 2013,
Having concluded its consideration of communication No. 376/2009, submitted on
behalf of Mounir Hammouche under article 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Having taken into account all information made available to it by the complainant,
her counsel and the State party,
Adopts the following:
Decision under article 22, paragraph 7, of the Convention against
Torture
1.
The complainant is Djamila Bendib. She submits the complaint on behalf of her son,
Mounir Hammouche, born on 15 December 1980 in Aïn Taghrout, wilaya of Bordj BouArréridj, where he resided during his lifetime and where he died in 2006. The complainant
alleges that Mounir Hammouche was the victim of a violation of articles 2 (para. 1), 11, 12,
13 and 14, read in conjunction with articles 1 and 16, of the Convention. The complainant
is represented by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
On 20 December 2006, as he was accustomed to doing, Mounir Hammouche
attended evening prayers at one of the mosques in the village of Aïn Taghrout, where he
lived. At around 8 p.m., when he was returning home at the end of prayers, several armed
men driving a vehicle and dressed in civilian clothing arrested him near the mosque. He
was taken to a military barracks of the Intelligence and Security Department (DRS) (the
army’s intelligence service in charge of counter-terrorism operations). Given that the DRS
agents had placed a hood over his head, Mounir Hammouche could not clearly make out
where he had been taken. He was released the following day. The complainant does not
know whether Mounir Hammouche was subjected to ill-treatment during his first arrest.
2
GE.13-49959