CAT/C/67/D/813/2017
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
31 October 2019
Original: English
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 813/2017*, **, ***
Communication submitted by:
M.Z. (represented by counsel, Wolfgang Kaleck,
European Centre for Constitutional
and Human Rights)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Belgium
Date of complaint:
11 January 2017 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rule 115 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted
to the State party on 17 March 2017
(not issued in document form)
Date of adoption of decision:
2 August 2019
Subject matter:
Complicity in acts of torture while the
complainant was in detention at Guantanamo
Bay; lack of investigation
Procedural issues:
Admissibility – the same matter; admissibility –
exhaustion of available domestic remedies;
admissibility – manifestly ill-founded
Substantive issues:
Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment during detention; lack
of prevention; lack of adequate investigation
Articles of the Convention:
2, 6 (1) and (2), 7 (1), 10, 12, 13 and 14
1.1
The complainant is M.Z., a national of Belgium and of Morocco, born on 3 August
1978. He claims a violation of his rights under articles 2, 6 (1) and (2), 7 (1), 10, 12, 13 and
14 of the Convention in relation to his detention at Guantanamo Bay. The State party
(Belgium) recognized the competence of the Committee against Torture to receive and
consider communications from individuals pursuant to article 22 of the Convention on
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-seventh session (22 July–9 August 2019).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu, Sébastien Touzé and Bakhtiyar
Tuzmukhamedov. Pursuant to rule 109, read in conjunction with rule 15, of the Committee’s rules of
procedure, Essadia Belmir, Felice Gaer and Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón recused themselves.
*** Pursuant to rule 119 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, an individual opinion (dissenting)
by Committee member Abdelwahab Hani is annexed to the present decision.
GE.19-18697(E)