CCPR/C/118/D/2157/2012 youngest sister only 3. Given the climate of terror prevailing in the region at the time, it was particularly difficult for the victim’s wife to undertake all the necessary steps to have the summary execution of her husband by members of the Algerian army recognized. It was therefore the victim’s brother, Youssef Belamrania, who attempted to initiate proceedings to have the murder recognized and apply for a death certificate for the civil register of the municipality of El Kennar. A few days after his brother’s funeral, he appealed in person to the public prosecutor’s office in El Milia to open an investigation into his brother’s death. After the public prosecutor suggested he submit a written request, Youssef Belamrania filed a formal complaint on 1 August 1995, along with a request for his brother’s death to be recorded in the civil register.6 2.16 Upon receipt of the request, the public prosecutor attached to the El Milia court, as the competent authority, simply ordered that the death be recorded in the civil register without requiring an investigation or the prosecution of the perpetrators. 7 2.17 The author notes that he has exhausted all available remedies, which all proved equally ineffective. The only remedy available to the family in this case of extrajudicial execution was to apply to the public prosecutor’s office with jurisdiction over the territory in order to file a formal complaint and request it to open an investigation. Youssef Belamrania, the victim’s brother, filed a formal complaint and suggested that the public prosecutor’s office should hear several witnesses, who were prepared to attest to having seen the soldiers take many persons away from the barracks in a truck. Other witnesses had seen the soldiers line up many persons, whose hands were tied behind their backs with metal wire, along the road in Tenfdour (El Milia) and summarily execute them using automatic weapons. Yet the public prosecutor’s office never took into consideration these statements or followed up on the family’s requests. The victim’s brother went to the public prosecutor’s office several times to enquire about the action taken with regard to his complaint, but he was given no information and no investigation was initiated. 2.18 Hamama Laouar, Mohammed Belamrania’s widow, found herself having to raise and provide for her 10 underage children alone after the death of her husband, who had been the sole provider for the family. In 2006, following the adoption of the order on national reconciliation, which provided for compensation for the “victims of the national tragedy”, she applied to the authorities for compensation, recalling that her husband had been executed by soldiers in the performance of their duties and that she and her family were also victims of the “national tragedy”. The authorities refused to acknowledge the soldiers’ responsibility in the events and suggested that she initiate a procedure to have her husband declared missing, which would enable her to receive compensation. She then handed over the documents in her possession, including a copy of the certified statement on the registration of death in the civil register issued by the public prosecutor of El Milia and the death certificate issued on 27 August 1995. 2.19 Even though it is clearly not a case of enforced disappearance but one of extrajudicial execution by military personnel, a missing person report was issued to the family by the El Kennar National Gendarmerie unit, 8 wrongly establishing that the victim had disappeared and that an investigation carried out by the Gendarmerie had not yielded any results. It is under these circumstances that Hamama Laouar sent a letter dated 3 July 2007 to the Director of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Defence, along with the missing person report issued by the Gendarmerie and other documents in the file, in an attempt to argue that her husband had been the victim of an extrajudicial execution by the military rather than of enforced disappearance. In the same letter she requested that an investigation be launched into the crime against her husband. 2.20 The only response Hamama Laouar received came eight months later, on 10 March 2008, and consisted in a succinct letter signed by the Director of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Defence asking her to transmit the “entire file on her husband and all necessary information” in order for him to reply, when in fact all the documents in Hamama Laouar’s 6 7 8 4 The request is attached to the file. Documents attached. Enclosed by the author. GE.17-04240