CAT/C/57/D/531/2012 unknown persons, who said to her, while removing her earrings: “Tell your father, the judge, that he can do nothing.” After this incident, the complainant’s wife and daughter again left Algeria for France, in February 2010. His wife returned to Algeria a few months later. 2.7 Meanwhile, the complainant received four anonymous telephone calls, in which he was enjoined to release the seized funds. He did not yield to this pressure, however, and pursued his inquiries. In February 2010, the investigation was complete, but the disputed funds remained blocked in the bank account. 2.8 In June 2010, the Director General of Police, Colonel Ali Tounsi, a close friend of the complainant’s, was assassinated. Officially, the persons responsible for his death were never found. The complainant, however, claims that the death was linked to inquiries that were being conducted into a case involving the embezzlement of oil revenue, in which the Ministry of Energy and Mines was implicated, and also to the Colonel’s refusal to grant the market for the supply of police helicopters to the brother of President Bouteflika. Colonel Tounsi had been aware that his life was in danger. Three days before his murder, he had confided in the complainant that he was afraid his opposition would cost him his life. After Colonel Tounsi’s death, some of his relatives also disappeared. The complainant, who was very concerned for his safety, shared his fears with the Director of Military Justice. Subsequently, he received several threatening telephone calls. 2.9 On 15 July 2010, the complainant left on holiday for about a month. On his return, he discovered that he had been transferred, without his knowledge, to Guelma Court, where he was to work as a legal adviser on civil law. This post did not correspond either to his training or to his professional experience as an investigating judge, having specialized in criminal law for the previous 20 years. The transfer made it clear to him that his situation would become ever more difficult and that an attempt was being made, before eliminating him completely, first to neutralize him professionally, by stripping him of his powers as an investigating judge. 2.10 Moreover, the complainant discovered that the funds he had ordered to be seized had been released. He was informed by the director of the bank that the latter had received an application signed by the complainant himself for the unblocking of the account in question. The application had obviously been forged and his signature falsified. Following his transfer, no investigating judge had replaced the complainant, so no one could have signed the application on his behalf. On 25 August 2010, the complainant submitted a report to the Chief Prosecutor at Souk Ahras Court denouncing the falsification of his signature. This report was not acted on. Having received no response, the complainant lodged another complaint with the Chief Prosecutor, on 13 September 2010. 2.11 Between late September and early October 2010, the complainant received threatening telephone calls. As he no longer felt at all safe in Algeria, he succeeded in obtaining a visa for his wife, who again left Algeria on 20 October 2010. 2.12 The complainant contacted a friend, a member of the Algerian army, General X, to whom he told everything. He also spoke to the Inspector General of the Ministry of Justice, in November 2010. Following this conversation, on 4 January 2011, the complainant was summoned to the office of the Inspectorate General, where the Inspector General received him with hostility, shouting that it was of course the complainant who had signed the application to the bank. The Inspector General sought to force the complainant to admit that he had signed the application to release the disputed sum of money, in exchange for which he would be granted a promotion. The complainant denied categorically having done so and refused the offer, whereupon the Inspector General attacked him, grabbing an exposed electrical cable and twice pressing the wires to the complainant’s chest, inflicting powerful GE.16-13805 3