CAT/C/52/D/402/2009 The complainant’s fourth arrest and detention 2.10 At around 5 a.m. on 29 June 2005, officers from the Beni Messous brigade of the National Gendarmerie (Al Dark al-Watani), accompanied by plainclothes officers, cordoned off the complainant’s home in Staoueli and searched it. Woken by a gun to his head, the complainant was taken to the headquarters of the Beni Messous gendarmerie, where he was tortured for two days. Naked, he was placed alternately in a cell in which the heat was on full, for two or three hours, and then in a cell where the air conditioning was on full, for the same length of time. He was kicked, and beaten with a metal bar, a pipe, and an electric cable. During those two days, he was deprived of sleep and sprayed with cold water to keep him awake. He was also subjected to the rag torture and electric shocks to his genitals and had a bar inserted into his anus. Once, he was taken to the toilets where he was forced to swallow toilet water. All the while he was undergoing these abuses, he was subjected to insults and threats (in particular, the threat of rape if he refused to sign confessions), and sexual references to his sister. The complainant recognized the person directing the torture sessions as a brigade commander, and family friend of the Minister of State, Bouguerra Soltani. The complainant was accused of plotting against the Minister, of having planted drugs that had been found in the Minister’s armoured vehicle, and of ties to terrorism. 2.11 On the morning of 1 July 2005, DRS officials took the complainant to an unknown locale near the Chateauneuf Centre, the DRS headquarters and notorious as the biggest centre for torture and arbitrary detention in the country. The complainant was first taken to an underground cell. He was hung head down by his left foot, from a rope fastened to the ceiling, with his hands tied behind his back and a hood over his head. He was subjected to the rag technique, and electric shocks to his stomach and genitals. He was then tied to a bed, and dealt many blows to his spinal cord with the heel of an Army boot. The complainant was then taken to a larger cell where he was again tortured in the presence of senior Algerian officials, including Bouguerra Soltani, then Minister of State, and Colonel Ali Tounsi, then Director of National Security, who were egging the torturers on. The purpose was to extort from him the identity of detractors of the Minister of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises within the Minister’s own party and, under duress, the complainant cited names and signed confessions without knowing the contents of the documents presented to him. The Minister of State left with the documents signed by the complainant, telling him that he would never leave prison for the rest of his life. At the end of the day, the complainant was taken back to the Beni Messous gendarmerie, where he was again tortured for two days. The complainant signed more documents under duress, including blank police reports. 2.12 Having learned of his arrest, the complainant’s cousin went to the Beni Messous gendarmerie on 1 July 2005. He too was arrested and tortured to make him testify against the complainant, and thrown into a cell in the gendarmerie. They were both brought before the court of Bir Mourad Raïs, in the suburbs of Algiers, on 4 July 2005. Having first been taken to a Government hospital for a medical check-up, the complainant had told the doctor about the torture inflicted on him and shown him the marks. The doctor had assured him that he would mention it, but the certificate drawn up later said nothing about torture. At the courthouse before the hearing, the complainant was beaten by a warrant officer and his staff. His head was thrown against a fire extinguisher, causing head wounds and bleeding, which were visible when he appeared before the court. The magistrate of the fifth chamber refused, however, to mention torture in the record and stuck to the gendarmes’ version, which said that he had inflicted the head wounds on himself, voluntarily. The complainant was charged with terrorism and sent to El Harrach prison. 2.13 When he gave information about conditions in El Harrach prison to a journalist by cell phone, and it was reported in the press, the complainant was called to the prison GE.14-05037 5