CAT/C/41/D/291/2006 page 5 France, and thought she was going to die in the cell. She lost consciousness under the hail of blows. When she came to, she asked for a glass of water, but the guard refused to give her one. 2.5 The complainant adds that the guard made her leave the cell and left her beside the two women in the corridor, who tried to comfort her. The plainclothes policeman who had taken the complainant to the basement took her back to the ground floor, where she found herself in a room with him and a uniformed police officer. They laughed at her and insulted her and her Egyptian husband. The complainant wondered how they knew her husband was Egyptian, and began to fear for his safety. The plainclothes policeman took her to the stairs, which she recognized as the stairs that led down to the basement, whereupon she begged him not to take her down there, as she was afraid she would be beaten to death. He took her into an office where there were some women, one of whom introduced herself as a judge and asked her to confirm that she had said “It’s thanks to us that you are here”. The complainant did not reply, but started to cry. The judge told her she would be imprisoned for three months, and that that should teach her a lesson. She requested that her family be informed, but the judge refused. The plainclothes policeman spoke up for her, saying “I don’t think she’ll do it again”. The judge asked the complainant to sign a document in Arabic, but she refused. The plainclothes policeman returned her bag and mobile phone, and asked her to check that everything was there. The complainant noticed that the ring she wanted to give her brother’s fiancée was no longer in the bag. She tried to ask the policeman about it, but he immediately asked if she was accusing them of something. She said no, for fear of reprisals, and rushed out of the court. Later, she noticed that €700 were also missing. 2.6 The complainant states that the next day and the day after that, she went to the emergency clinic of Charles Nicolle hospital in Tunis for treatment. She obtained a medical certificate stating that she had been beaten on 23 July 2004, although the correct date was 22 July 2004.1 She returned to France on 27 July 2004, and consulted a doctor in Paris on 30 July 2004. The medical examinations confirmed that she had been beaten and that her body was covered in bruises (“multiple ecchymoses: left arm, right foot, right buttock”) and lesions (“contusions”, “contusions on the right wrist”). She had received a severe blow to the head (“cranial trauma”), which had given her constant headaches (“cephalalgia”) and had various swellings (“oedema”), and she would need two weeks to recover from her injuries barring complications.2 The abuse and ill-treatment caused her severe trauma, as shown by, for example, a state of constant anxiety, serious sleep problems and significant loss of short-term memory.3 This also led to 1 Attached to file. 2 Medical certificate dated 30 July 2004 attached to file. 3 The complainant also provides a statement from a human rights activist in Tunisia who says that she saw the complainant in August and that the bruises and marks were still clearly visible. The activist had learned of the complainant’s questioning from ACAT on 22 July 2004 and had immediately contacted a representative of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in North Africa. The activist also posted an article on the Internet on 15 December 2004 to publicize the case.