economy”. In particular, he was accused of having organized a strike, which the prosecution characterized as subversive, since it had allegedly caused serious damage to the national economy. Ali Benhadj’s counsel challenged the validity of the proceedings before the military tribunal and the lawfulness of the investigation led by a military judge subordinate to the prosecuting authority. According to the defence, 1 the tribunal had been established to remove the leaders of the main opposition party from the political scene and did not have jurisdiction to hear the case, being competent only to try offences against the Criminal Code and the Code of Military Justice committed by military personnel in the performance of their duties or by civilians acting as accomplices to an offence of which the main perpetrator is a member of the armed forces. The jurisdiction of military tribunals to try political offences, pursuant to a law of 1963, had been de facto abolished with the establishment, in 1971, of a special National Security Court to deal with this type of offence. That court had been dissolved after the introduction of political pluralism in 1989, and thus the general rules on jurisdiction should apply. 2.3 FIS won the first round of parliamentary elections on 26 December 1991; the day after the official results were announced, the military prosecutor was supposed to inform the defence lawyers of his intention to discontinue proceedings against Ali Benhadj. However, on 12 January 1992, the President of the Republic “resigned”, a state of emergency was declared, parliamentary elections were cancelled, and “administrative internment” camps were installed in southern Algeria. On 15 July 1992, the military court of Blida sentenced Ali Benhadj in absentia to 12 years’ rigorous imprisonment. The appeal against this decision was rejected by the Supreme Court on 15 February 1993, whereupon the sentence became final. 2.4 At the time of submission of the communication, Mr. Benhadj was still in prison. All his co-defendants were released after serving part of their sentences. During his time in detention, he was held in different forms of confinement and was treated differently according to whether he was considered by the military authorities to be a political interlocutor. From July 1991 to April 1993, he was detained in the military prison of Blida, where he was subjected to physical violence, in particular for having asked to be treated in accordance with the law and the prison regulations, and for having rejected political overtures by the military authorities. He was subsequently transferred to the civilian prison of Tizi-Ouzou, where he was 1 Counsel submitted the defence statement dated 18 July 1992, denouncing serious irregularities in the proceedings. 144 144 held in solitary confinement on death row for several months. He was transferred back to Blida military prison, where he was held until political negotiations broke down and he was transferred, on 1 February 1995, to a military barracks in the far south of Algeria. There he was held incommunicado for four months and six days and confined to a tiny punishment cell without ventilation or sanitary facilities. He was then transferred to a State residence normally reserved for dignitaries visiting Algeria, new negotiations having begun between a “national commission” chaired by General Liamine Zeroual and the FIS leaders. 2.5 On the day on which negotiations broke down—which General Zeroual attributed to Mr. Benhadj—the latter was again transferred to a secret place of detention, probably a military security barracks, in the far south of Algeria. He was kept in complete isolation in a tiny punishment cell2 with no opening onto the outside, except for a hatch in the ceiling, and there he lost all sense of time. He was confined there for two years. He was permitted to write to all the official authorities (the President, the Head of Government, the Minister of Justice, the military authorities) and was assured that his letters would reach the addressees. He went on numerous hunger strikes, which were brutally suppressed by his guards. He was not allowed visits by his family, much less his lawyers. 2.6 In the autumn of 1997, he was again transferred to Blida military prison, where he was held incommunicado and subjected to ill-treatment for almost two years. Thus, over a period of four years, his family did not know where he was being detained and whether he was still alive. Only in 1999 was his family informed of his place of detention and authorized to visit him. In January 2001, his family noted that his conditions of detention had again deteriorated, after he had written to the President of the Republic. On 16 January 2001, Mr. Mesli referred the case of Mr. Benhadj to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. On 3 December 2001, the Working Group found that the deprivation of his liberty was arbitrary and in contravention of articles 9 and 14 of the Covenant. The Working Group requested the State party to “take the necessary steps to remedy the situation and to bring it into conformity with the standards and principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the [...] Covenant”. 3 No such steps have been taken by the State party. 2 It was too small for him to be able to stand up or lie down. 3 Opinion No. 28/2001 of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.