CAT/C/31/D/187/2001
Page 4
2.9
In support of his claims of torture and the effects of torture, the complainant submits a
certificate from a Swiss physiotherapist, a report by a neurological specialist in Fribourg and a
certificate of psychiatric treatment from the medical service of a Swiss insurance company. He
also cites an observation mission report by the International Federation for Human Rights,
stating that, during proceedings initiated on 9 July 1992 against Islamist militants, including the
complainant, all the defendants that were interviewed complained that they had been subjected to
serious physical abuse whilst in police custody.
2.10 The complainant provides a list of persons who subjected him to torture during this
period, namely, Ezzedine Jneieh, Director of DST; Abderrahmen El Guesmi; El Hamrouni; Ben
Amor, Inspector of Police; and Mahmoud El Jaouadi, Slah Eddine Tarzi and Mohamed EnnacerHleiss, all of Bouchoucha Intelligence Service. He adds that his torturers were assisted by two
doctors and that he witnessed torture being inflicted on his fellow detainees.
2.11 On 4 June 1991, the complainant appeared before the military examining magistrate,
Major Ayed Ben Kayed. The complainant states that, during the hearing, he denied the charges
against him of having attempted a coup d’état, and that he was refused the assistance of counsel.
2.12 The complainant claims that he was then placed in solitary confinement in the premises
of the Ministry of the Interior (DST), from 4 June to 28 July 1991, and refused all visits, mail,
medicine and necessary medical attention, except for one visit, on 18 July 1991, by
Dr. Moncef Marzouki, President of the Tunisian Human Rights League. The complainant adds
that he was not fed properly, that he was denied the right to practise his religion and that he was
once again subjected to torture.
2.13 From 28 July 1991, when his period of police custody ended, the complainant was
repeatedly transferred between different prison establishments in the country - in Tunis, Borj
Erroumi (Bizerte), Mahdia, Sousse, Elhaoireb and Rejim Maatoug - which transfers, he
maintains, were designed to prevent him having any contact with his family.
2.14 The complainant describes the bad conditions in these detention facilities, such as
overcrowding, with 60-80 persons in the small cells in which he was held, and the poor hygiene,
which caused sickness: he maintains that, as a result, he developed asthma and suffered skin
allergies and that his feet are now disfigured. He states that on several occasions he was placed
in solitary confinement, partly because of the hunger strikes he mounted in the 9 April prison in
Tunis over 12 days in July 1992, and in Mahdia over 8 days in October 1995 and 10 days in
March 1996, as a protest against the conditions in which he was being held and the ill-treatment
to which he was subjected, and partly by arbitrary decision of the prison warders. He also
stresses that he was stripped naked and beaten in public.
2.15 On 9 July 1992 the complainant’s case was heard by the Bouchoucha military court
in Tunis. He maintains that he was only able to have one meeting with his counsel,
on 20 July 1992, and that it was conducted under the surveillance of the prison warders. On 28
August 1992, he was sentenced to a term of six years’ imprisonment.