CAT/C/50/D/430/2010 recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights would be respected and that, in the event of a new conviction, he would be incarcerated in a detention facility that complied with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. 11.6 Notwithstanding the diplomatic assurances that were provided, the Committee must consider the actual human rights situation in Tunisia at the time of the extradition of the complainant’s husband. The Committee refers to its concluding observations of 1998, issued in connection with the second periodic report of Tunisia (CAT/C/20/Add.7), in which it states that it is “particularly disturbed by the reported widespread practice of torture and other cruel and degrading treatment perpetrated by security forces and the police, which, in certain cases, resulted in death in custody”.33 More recently, in 2008, the Human Rights Committee, following its consideration of the periodic report of Tunisia (CCPR/C/TUN/5), indicated that it was “concerned about serious and substantiated reports that acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are being committed in the territory of the State party”34 The Human Rights Committee further noted that it was “concerned by reports that, in practice, confessions obtained through torture are not excluded as evidence in a trial”.35 This information is corroborated by numerous nongovernmental sources cited both by the complainant and by the State party, the latter having acknowledged the worrisome human rights situation prevailing in Tunisia at the time of Onsi Abichou’s extradition, going so far as to consider that the “illegal treatment of suspects in Tunisia could not be ruled out”. 11.7 Therefore, the authorities of the State party knew or should have known at the time of Onsi Abichou’s extradition that Tunisia routinely resorted to the widespread use of torture against detainees held for political reasons and against detainees charged with ordinary criminal offences. The Committee further takes note of the complainant’s claim that two other defendants in the same case were tortured in order to extract confessions from them, not only when they were being held in police custody, but also, after the investigating judge ordered that further inquiries be conducted, during the time that their trial was being held. The Committee gives due weight to the information provided and documented by the complainant on this subject, including the testimony of the two defendants themselves and the complaints of torture that they lodged with the Tunisian courts, which were dismissed without verification or investigation. The acts of torture that were presumably inflicted on these two individuals served only to increase the personal risk to which Mr. Abichou was exposed, since, once extradited to Tunisia, he was given a new trial and was therefore subject to further judicial proceedings, including further inquiries, and, given the circumstances, thus stood a real risk of being subjected to torture or illtreatment. The fact that diplomatic assurances were obtained was not sufficient grounds for the State party’s decision to ignore this obvious risk, especially since none of the guarantees that were provided related specifically to protection against torture or ill-treatment. The fact that Onsi Abichou was ultimately not subjected to such treatment following his extradition cannot be justifiably used to call into question or minimize, retrospectively, the existence of such a risk at the time of his extradition. The Committee concludes that the complainant has demonstrated that Onsi Abichou faced a foreseeable, real and personal risk of being subjected to torture at the time of his extradition to Tunisia. It follows that his extradition from the State party constituted a violation of article 3 of the Convention. 33 34 35 16 Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/54/44), para. 72. CCPR/C/TUN/CO/5, para. 11 (see footnote 7 above). Ibid, para. 12. GE.13-45615