CAT/C/41/D/291/2006 page 4 accompanied her brother to the court of first instance in Tunis, where he was to retrieve a document he needed for his forthcoming wedding. The official on the counter on the ground floor asked the complainant for the file number; she told him the number had been lost. The official told her she needed to open a new file, a procedure that would take three months. The complainant explained to him that the document was needed urgently for her brother’s wedding, and asked him if he could not find the file by using her brother’s name, date of birth and address to search for it. The official said he could not and, when she insisted, told her to let him get on with his work. She retorted that it was plain to see that he was not working and added, “If you want to know the truth, it’s thanks to us that you are here”. The official asked to see her papers and she gave him her French passport; he then asked her to follow him. The complainant followed him, telling him, “I hope you’re not going to give me any problems. I know that Tunisia is a democratic country, unless it is just pretending to be one”. At this point, her brother begged the official to excuse his sister for what she had said. The official told him nothing would happen to her. 2.2 The complainant followed the official to the office of the vice-president of the court, where a man began to question her. He asked her to confirm what she had said to the official, including the phrase “It’s thanks to us that you are here”, which she did. He then wrote something in Arabic on a piece of paper and asked her to sign it. As she did not understand what was written, she refused to sign it. The man called a plainclothes policeman and exchanged looks with him; the policeman asked the complainant to follow him. They went back down to the ground floor and along a corridor, where the complainant noticed that people seemed to be giving her worried looks, which deepened her unease. She tried to phone, using her mobile phone, Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) in Paris, whose number she had. She managed to give her name and say that she was in Tunisia before the plainclothes policeman took her mobile phone and turned it off. 2.3 The complainant claims she asked him where they were going, but that he twisted her arm, out of sight of onlookers. Each time she protested, he increased the pressure. At that point she began to have serious worries about her safety. He took her down some stairs to the basement, to an entry hall where there was a desk and a guard, who snatched her bag from her. He made her go into a corridor where two women were sitting. The complainant asked where they were, to which one of the women replied in Arabic “eloukouf”, adding, in French, that it meant “prison”. 2.4 According to the complainant, another guard - a tall, beefy man with a big nose, fat lips and curly hair - came out of a door in the corridor and began punching and kicking the complainant. He swore at her as he continued to punch and kick her. The force of the blows forced the complainant further down the corridor, until she was outside cells containing about 50 handcuffed men. The guard ripped off her scarf and dress. The complainant was not wearing a bra and found herself half-naked. The guard hit her again and threw her to the floor. He took her by the hair and dragged her to an unlit cell, where he continued punching and kicking her on the head and body. The complainant huddled up and begged for mercy, screaming and in fear for her life. The guard pounded her on the head, back, buttocks, legs, knees and feet, all the while swearing at her and making threats against her family. She was already half-naked, and thought the guard was going to rape her. She was also fearful for the safety of her family in Tunis and