CAT/C/52/D/402/2009 left foot for many hours on end. His right foot was pierced with a heavy-gauge nail or screwdriver and shards of glass. While he was hanging from the ceiling by his foot, cold water was poured over his body. The victim was blindfolded for all the time that these abuses were being inflicted. During the interrogations, he understood that his torturers did not only wish him to reveal who had provided him with false papers; they also feared that the complainant would make public, once he had abandoned Algerian territory, what he had seen in the Army. The torture consisting in hanging the victim by his foot was repeated for 15 days in a row. During the days following his transfer to Constantine, the torturers submerged his head in water to the point of asphyxiation and bent his leg violently, causing breaks requiring a plaster cast, which was put on by a doctor who was called in for that purpose. The complainant was also deprived of sleep. 2.5 During his 15 days in secret detention (from 13 to 27 April 2001), between torture sessions the complainant was held in a cell approximately 1 square metre in area and approximately 1.2 metres high, situated near the torture chamber, without a window, and lit day and night by a fluorescent tube. He could not lie down full length or stand up; he was naked, handcuffed with his hands behind his back day and night, and he slept on the floor. He was given water and a piece of bread twice daily, and his handcuffs were not removed to allow him to eat. He only asked to leave his cell once a day, in order to avoid the blows and insults, and was forbidden to look at his jailers (he was told to look at the wall) when they opened the door. At night, since the doors on to the corridors (behind his cell door) were kept closed, there was no ventilation and he lacked sufficient air. On 27 April 2001, he was transferred back to Tébessa and turned over to the police, who took him directly to the Tébessa hospital, where he was placed in the wing reserved for prisoners. A prosecutor from the court of Tébessa paid him a visit several days after his arrival in the hospital. The complainant informed him of the torture inflicted on him, but the prosecutor was not particularly interested. The meeting was brief. 2.6 In late May 2001, he was transferred to the Tébessa prison infirmary, and in late June of that year, placed in regular detention, sharing a cell with other prisoners. Between the visit from the Tébessa prosecutor in the hospital and his placement in regular detention, the complainant wrote twice to the prosecutor general of Tébessa to complain about the torture inflicted on him, with no result. 2.7 In early July 2001, the complainant began a hunger strike, which lasted seven days, and which resulted in his placement in solitary confinement and led the prosecutor general to bring the case before an investigating judge at the court of Tébessa. This judge came to see the complainant, informing him that the allegations he had made were related to a matter of military security and therefore not within his jurisdiction. No further action was taken. The complainant wrote again to the prosecutor general of Tébessa, but the wardens told him that his letters were thrown away. 2.8 On 4 August 2001, during his trial for forgery, using forged documents and impersonation, the complainant again reported the torture inflicted on him, showed the marks on his body, and demanded an investigation. The court simply sentenced him to 1 year’s imprisonment. The judge advised the complainant that the matter of torture required another proceeding, since the only matter before the court was forgery. The complainant again reported the acts of torture inflicted on him — again without result — before the appeal court during his hearing on 15 October 2001 (when his prison term was reduced to 10 months). 2.9 He was not released until 28 April 2002. He then went to the prosecutor general of Tébessa and asked for an investigation to be launched into the acts of torture inflicted on him. The prosecutor general told the complainant that he would be summoned; this never occurred. The next day he was threatened by two DRS officials, who told him that he would put himself and his family in grave danger if he persisted. 4 GE.14-05037