Mr. Abbassi Madani has availed himself of the domestic remedies under the law, etc. It should be noted that the observations of the State party cited above did not elicit any new comments from the author. It seems quite clear that all these questions on the part of the author as well as on that of the State party should have received the primary consideration of the Committee in its endeavour to formulate its views in respect of article 14 in the light of the guarantees spelled out therein. Unfortunately, as it appears from paragraph 8.7 of the communication, instead of giving serious consideration to these fundamental issues the Committee has chosen to claim that in trying civilians before military courts States parties must demonstrate that the regular civilian courts are unable to undertake the trials, i.e., a condition which I believe does not constitute part of the guarantees stipulated in article 14. The Committee found that in the present case, the failure by the State party to meet this new condition is sufficient by itself to justify a finding of a violation of article 14. Furthermore the Committee, in the wording of paragraph 8.7, came to the conclusion that the State party’s failure to demonstrate the need to rely on a military court in the case means that the Committee need not examine whether the military court, as a matter of fact, afforded the full guarantees of article 14. It seems to me that this last contention by the Committee could be read to mean that we cannot totally exclude the possibility that had the Committee chosen, as it should have done, to examine the question of guarantees it may conceivably have found that in fact the military trial in question did meet the guarantees stipulated by article 14 of the Covenant. For all those reasons, I find myself unable to subscribe to the views expressed by the Committee in paragraph 8.7 of the communication. (Signed): Ahmed T. Khalil Communication No. 1173/2003 Submitted by: Mr. Abdelhamid Benhadj (represented by counsel, Mr. Rachid Mesli) Alleged victim: Ali Benhadj (the author’s brother) State party: Algeria Date of adoption of Views: 20 July 2007 Subject matter: Arbitrary detention The facts as presented by the author Procedural issue: Power of attorney 2.1 Ali Benhadj is one of the founding members and, at the time of submission of the communication, the Vice-President of the Front Islamique du Salut (Islamic Salvation Front - FIS), an Algerian political party registered by the State party on 12 September 1989, following the introduction of political pluralism. In the context of upcoming elections and following the gains made by FIS in the 1990 local elections, the Algerian Government was to adopt a new electoral law which was unanimously condemned by all the Algerian opposition parties. In protest against this law, FIS organized a general strike, accompanied by peaceful sit-ins in public squares. After several days of strikes and peaceful marches, the parties agreed to end the protests in exchange for a revision of the electoral law in the near future. However, on 3 June 1991, the Head of Government was asked to resign and the public squares were stormed by the Algerian army. Substantive issues: Right to liberty and security of person; arbitrary arrest and detention; right to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person; right to a fair hearing; a competent, independent and impartial tribunal; right to freedom of expression Articles of the Covenant: 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 19 Articles of the Optional Protocol: Finding: Violation (arts. 9, 10 and 14) 1. The author of the communication, dated 31 March 2003, is Abdelhamid Benhadj, who is submitting the communication on behalf of his brother, Ali Benhadj, born on 16 December in 1956 in Tunis. The author claims that his brother is a victim of violations by Algeria of articles 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Covenant). He is represented by Mr. Rachid Mesli. The Covenant and its Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on 12 December 1989. 143 143 2.2 On 29 June 1991, Ali Benhadj was arrested by military security officers at the State television headquarters, where he had gone to present his party’s position. On 2 July 1991, he was brought before the military prosecutor of Blida and charged with “crimes against State security” and “jeopardizing the proper functioning of the national