CAT/C/41/D/291/2006
page 21
court of first instance in Tunis on 22 July 2004, the officers categorically denied the
complainant’s allegations, asserting that she had not suffered any ill-treatment.36
13.3 The investigating judge conducted the usual confrontations, during which the complainant
repeated that she had been subjected to ill-treatment, identifying two of the three law
enforcement officers as having been on duty on the day of the incident. Of those two officers,
one, according to the complainant, had played no part in the alleged events. She identified the
other officer as the one who had taken her to the court’s jail, gripping her arm, which had caused
her pain. She said that a third officer, not the one who had been brought before her, had been
responsible for the ill-treatment inflicted. However, the officer who had been brought before her
stated that he had been the third officer on duty on 22 July 2004. In addition, the complainant
reaffirmed that she had asked one of her fellow detainees to testify in her favour in exchange for
a gift. She also admitted that she had not informed her family of the ill-treatment on her return
home. The persons detained along with her and the law enforcement officers reiterated that the
complainant had not been subjected to any ill-treatment while being held in the court’s jail. The
complainant’s brother repeated his previous statements.
13.4 According to the State party, the evidence contained in the investigation file confirms the
double contradiction noted in respect of the medical certificate submitted to the Committee by
the complainant (see paragraph 11.2 above). It also confirms that the complainant was not
subjected to ill-treatment at the court of first instance in Tunis. Consequently, the State party
requests the Committee to reconsider its decision declaring the complaint admissible, since
domestic remedies have not been exhausted, the investigation is still under way and the evidence
uncovered by the investigation as to the merits demonstrates that the complaint is baseless.
Complainant’s comments on the State party’s observations
14.1 On 7 April 2008, the complainant argued that the issue of admissibility had been settled by
the Committee’s decision of 7 November 2007. She made clear that she had indeed filed a
complaint with the domestic courts and that she had twice travelled to Tunis in response to
summonses by the investigating judge of the court of first instance, in order to be present at
two hearings relating to the investigation into her complaint of torture and ill-treatment. The
hearings were held on 11 December 2007 and 7 January 2008 at the fourth investigations
office of the court of first instance. Three other hearings seem to have been organized,
however, without her presence having been sought, on 30 August 2007, 31 August 2007
and 4 January 2008.
14.2 The complainant notes that the State party has included in the file a partial record of those
hearings, contained in eight annexes in Arabic. The records are incomplete and confused and
numerous passages have been omitted, without any explanation being provided by the State
party. The complainant comments that these documents do not constitute records, since they do
not reflect what was actually said during the investigating judge’s interviews with the witnesses:
36
Idem.
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