CAT/C/23/D/60/1996 page 6 consistent with further blows. The entire pattern of injury is that of a systematic physical assault and very strongly corroborates the allegation of ill-treatment and torture that has been made. The injury pattern as a whole and the injuries to the anus, feet and buttocks in particular are incompatible with involvement in a road traffic accident and this explanation for the death has no credibility in the light of the autopsy findings.” 2.7 The author states that he visited the two principal witnesses to Faisal’s death (names provided) some months after the incident. They said that Faisal had died in their arms at the Brigade’s headquarters. The author, a trade unionist, was himself subsequently arrested on 15 May 1992 by the same Brigade and was detained at the same location as the victim. He was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment. He states that his detention gave him the opportunity to meet witnesses to Faisal’s death, who corroborated what the first witnesses had said, namely that Faisal had died under torture. After his release, while he was still under house arrest, the author left Tunisia and was granted asylum in France. 2.8 The author has provided a copy of a report dated 13 July 1992 by the Higher Committee for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Driss Commission) containing the following reference to the Baraket case: “The investigating commission had concluded, in its report dated 11 September 1991, that a number of deaths had occurred in obscure and suspicious circumstances. [...] “two other cases came to light after the Investigating Commission had completed its work. “- concerning Faisal Baraket, the record of the preliminary investigation indicates that he met his death in a road accident. This was reported by the police to the prosecutor’s office, which entrusted an investigation (No. 13458) to the examining magistrate attached to the Court of First Instance at Grombalia. [...] “We think that these two incidents also occurred in suspicious circumstances and that, in spite of the fact that the two corresponding cases have been closed, it appears that new evidence has emerged which warrants the opening of a new inquiry on the matter in accordance with article 36 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.” 2.9 The author claims that the victim’s family cannot avail itself of the domestic remedies offered to it in Tunisia because it fears retaliation by the police. On 11 December 1991, the author sent an anonymous letter to the Prosecutor of the Republic in the town of Grombalia in which he reported the crime, identified the victim and the police officers responsible and specified the circumstances in which the victim died. He also wrote to the Minister of Justice, his deputies and the national and international media. However, the death of Faisal Baraket was never investigated.