CCPR/C/116/D/2297/2013 The complaint 3.1 The author alleges violations of articles 7, 9, 10, 12 and 14 of the Covenant. East-West Highway affair 3.2 With regard to article 7, the author cites the extraction of his confession under duress and the torture to which he was subjected during his detention in police custody from 17 September to 6 October 2009. The author considers that the treatment he suffered (paras. 2.4-2.7) violated article 7 of the Covenant. 3.3 The author argues that his unlawful detention in itself violated article 9 of the Covenant. He was taken, without explanation, to an unknown location and held incommunicado for 20 days, in breach of his constitutional rights, notably the rights set out in article 48 of the Constitution, since his detention was not subject to judicial review within 48 hours of his arrest and he had no contact with his family. He was never examined by a doctor, contrary to the statements of the investigators, who placed in the case file what the author believes to be a fake medical report. This report appeared miraculously in the file after the author stated, during the hearing before the Indictments Chamber on 29 June 2011, that no medical examination had been conducted at the end of his period in police custody. 3.4 Concerning the handling of the author’s detention in police custody, the record of his questioning makes no mention of the duration of the interrogations or the rest breaks between them, nor has the record been signed in the margin to identify the officer conducting the questioning, in violation of article 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. In reality, the author was interrogated during uninterrupted periods over days and nights, without a break, rest, sleep, food or water. The author also notes that, while he was held for 20 days, the custody period was not extended after the first 48 hours or subsequently, in violation of article 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. When the legal time limit for the initial period of custody expired 48 hours after his arrest, he was not brought before the public prosecutor at Bir Mourad Raïs Court, who was the competent authority at that point and to whom the report on the preliminary investigation was transmitted. Under article 51 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the extension of the custody period (up to eight days) is permitted only with the written authorization of the prosecutor. In this case, however, no application for an extension was made, or at least no trace of such an application is to be found in the case file. Moreover, the author challenged his continued detention on numerous occasions, before both the investigating judge and the Indictments Chamber of the Court of Algiers, including in a memorandum submitted at the hearing on 29 June 2011, but no action was taken. 3.5 Under Algerian law, the DRS criminal investigation officers should have immediately informed the public prosecutor at the local court of the author’s arrest. However, this information was transmitted at the same time as the report on the preliminary investigation, on 6 October 2009. The author’s detention in police custody and the preliminary investigation thus took place without any oversight by the prosecutor’s office. The author also notes that the officers failed to observe the essential formal requirements in conducting the preliminary investigation and that several stages of the proceedings were disposed of in a single day, on 6 October 2009. 3.6 In addition, the author cites the absence of communication with counsel during his detention in police custody and during the hearing before the investigating judge on 7 October 2009, which is confirmed by the record of the hearing. He was not informed that he had the right to appeal his pretrial detention, contrary to article 123 bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It was only because he was able, subsequently, to retain qualified counsel to advise him that he managed to appeal the decision within the legal time limit of three days. There is indeed no mention in the record of the investigating judge’s having GE.16-07656 5