Amar and Zoheir Saker

Amar Saker, a 33 year-old farmer from Skikda, eastern Algeria, and his brother Zoheir were arrested within five days of each other in February 2005, and accused of belonging to and supporting an Algerian armed group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, Groupe salafiste pour la prédication et le combat (GSPC). They were suspected of having established links with a local armed group belonging to the GSPC through their brother Adel, an alleged member of the GSPC who had left Algeria in December 2003.

Amar Saker reported having been arrested on 19 February 2005 by three officers of the DRS at a cafe near his house in Tamalouz, Skikda. He says he was put into a car, with his face covered and his hands tied behind his back, and taken to a DRS base [secteur militaire / qita’ askari] in Skikda. There he reported being made to sit on an iron chair, his hands tied behind his back, and being beaten with batons. He reported that he was undressed and locked naked in a cell for the night with his hands tied behind his back.

The following day, he was reportedly flown to Algiers and taken to the Antar barracks in Hydra. After his personal details had been taken, he said that one of the officers beat him on the head with a rifle butt, making him lose consciousness. When he regained consciousness he was in a cell.

The following morning, 21 February 2005, he was reportedly taken to an interrogation room where DRS officers confronted him with details about his alleged involvement in activities of the GSPC. Amar Saker says that, after he denied the allegations, he was spat at, insulted and kicked by his interrogators. On the afternoon of the same day he reported having been taken to the basement and suspended from the ceiling with handcuffs for some two to three hours. He said that, when he continued to deny the allegations against him, he was threatened that the interrogation style would change. That night, he says, he was undressed and detained in the toilet where he was forced to remain for the entire night and where he was seen by everyone who used the toilet during the night.

Amar Saker stated that he was further tortured using a range of methods, including electric shock treatment. He said that after the torture sessions there were numerous injuries to his body and blood coming from injuries to his chest and stomach. Amar Saker reported that the injuries inflicted under torture were so serious that he was not sure whether he would survive. He was not given any medical treatment.

According to Amar Saker, on the fifth day of detention and torture, he began admitting to the accusations and the torture stopped for three days. Afterwards, he was reportedly suspended from the ceiling, his feet not touching the ground, and left in this position during the entire day. He stated that he was asked once every hour whether he had remembered anything and only brought down if he said he had further information. He said that he was subjected to this treatment for three consecutive days.

Amar Saker reported that he had his fingers clamped in a drawer because he asked to read the report of his interrogation before signing it. He also stated that he was slapped in the face and told he should consider himself lucky that he had not been killed. Among the documents he was forced to sign before being presented to the judicial authorities was a declaration that he had been treated humanely during detention and not been subjected to any form of ill-treatment.

Amar Saker’s brother, Zoheir Saker, was arrested by DRS officers on 24 February 2005 and detained at the Antar barracks for nine days, during which time he reported having suffered a similar treatment to his brother Amar. While the brothers were detained by the DRS, their family did not know where they were.

According to his own account, Amar Saker was held by the DRS without any contact to the outside world for 14 days, exceeding by two days the legal limit for garde à vue detention. Official documents state his arrest date as 21 February, two days after he says he was arrested, apparently to disguise the fact that he was held beyond the maximum period of garde à vue detention.

When Amar and Zoheir Saker were presented to a prosecutor and later to an examining judge on 5 March, they reportedly bore clearly visible traces of injuries. They were not assisted by a lawyer. They retracted the statements they had been forced to sign and stated that they had been subjected to torture while they were detained by the DRS. The judge did not react to the allegations of torture and proceeded with the case. Amar and Zoheir Saker were charged with "belonging to a terrorist group operating abroad" and "apology for and financing of terrorist acts" and remanded in custody at Serkadji prison, Algiers.

Under torture, Amar Saker had admitted to being a link person between his brother Adel in Syria, a local armed group belonging to the GSPC, and members of an international network based abroad. He reportedly also admitted to transmitting messages, money and various items – such as SIM cards and top-up cards for mobile telephones – and to providing logistical support to the armed group. Zoheir Saker reportedly admitted to conducting some meetings and transfers on behalf of his brother Amar. Amar and Zoheir Saker had also been forced to admit that their brother Adel had asked them to provided logistical support to introduce foreign fighters into Algeria, allegedly to provide training to the GSPC, including in the use of explosives, and to conduct suicide attacks. In this context, Zoheir Saker is said to have admitted to meeting two Tunisians in eastern Algeria.

On 7 March, the prison administration wrote to the examining judge and the prosecutor, notifying them that Amar Saker’s body bore traces of violence when he was admitted to the prison and subjected to a medical examination. The examining judge apparently received this document on 8 March. Some two weeks later, the judge instructed a psychologist to examine Amar and Zoheir Saker and to establish a report specifying the nature, kind and extent of their injuries. Amar and Zoheir Saker say that they did not receive a visit by a psychologist to examine and document their injuries, in accordance with the instructions of the judge. According to Amnesty International’s information, a medical examination by a forensic doctor, as requested by their lawyer, did not take place. The traces of injuries from the alleged torture were reportedly still visible on Amar Saker’s body nearly a year after he had been arrested, but no investigation into the allegations of torture had been opened.

Amar and Zoheir Saker were detained at Serkadji prison in Algiers awaiting trial until 4 March 2006. On that day, they were released and informed that the judicial proceedings against them would be ended, in the context of "national reconciliation" measures.

Toufik Touati

Toufik Touati, was arrested at his home in Algiers at around mid-day on 14 June 2004, three days before his brother Smail (see case of Smail Touati below). Born in 1966, Toufik Touati is married with two children and works as a taxi driver. He received a visit by two plain clothes officers who reportedly did not identify themselves, but told him that they needed to ask him some questions and asked him to come with them. He later said he recognized them because they had come to the house once before, when his brother was detained. At the time they had asked if he was experiencing any problems and asked for his telephone number, seemingly offering to help.

He followed the officers, who drove an unmarked white Ford Transit van, in his own car which was later recovered by family members outside the Parc Sofia barracks of the Direction du contre-espionage (DCE), a branch of the DRS. After some twenty minutes there he was told that he would be transferred to a police station in Hydra, Algiers. He was put into a car, accompanied by three different officers. As the car entered Hydra, Toufik Touati was told to lower his head to prevent him from seeing out. Amnesty International believes that he was taken to the Antar barracks in Hydra because he saw his brother there several days later.

He later stated that he was held in a cell with no water, window, or ventilation for 13 days without being allowed to contact his family. Official documents state his arrest date as 15 June, one day after he says he was arrested, apparently to disguise the fact that he was held one day beyond the maximum period of garde à vue detention. During this time, he reported being questioned every night, beginning after midnight. He said that the officers asked him about his brother, stating that they had listened to his telephone calls while his brother was in prison. He stated that he admitted under duress to having been in contact with a number of Algerians living abroad who knew his brother, and to having received money from them.

Toufik Touati said that he was tortured during the first three days of his detention at Antar. He reported being beaten with hands and fists, being undressed during interrogation and being threatened to be tortured with electricity. He also reported being threatened that his wife would be arrested if he did not tell the truth. He said that, during the first interrogation, his hands and feet were tightly strapped to the four legs of a table, his T-shirt was brought up and pulled over his head, and the flesh on his chests was pinched and twisted to cause him pain. He reported that he started admitting to the accusations levied against him to stop the torture. He said that he had to sign and thumb-print the interrogation report without having read it. One of the officers reportedly told him "If you try to look at the report, I’ll take out both your eyes."

While he was held at Antar, his family was not informed of his whereabouts. They contacted a lawyer who enquired about him at the court on the three days before Toufik Touati was brought before the judicial authorities on 27 June 2004, together with his brother Smail. The judge did not take into account that Toufik Touati declared having been tortured and that he retracted the statements made while being interrogated by the DRS. The official minutes of the court hearing reflects that he told the court that he had made certain statements to the security forces "having been beaten" [taht al darb] and "under duress" [taht al daght], but no investigation is known to have been opened into the allegations of torture, and no medical examination was ordered. Toufik Touati was charged with "encouraging terrorist activities" and released on 27 June 2004, pending trial. In March 2006, the charges were dropped and he all judicial proceedings were ended, in accordance with measures for "national reconciliation".

Smail Touati

Toufik Touati’s brother Smail, an Algerian citizen aged 33, was first arrested by border police upon arrival at Algiers airport on 7 October 2003, when he returned to Algeria for a family visit. He was provisionally released on 24 April 2004 and arrested again by DRS officers on 17 June 2004. He lives in Dublin, Ireland, where he is married with four children and works as a truck driver.

When he was first arrested he was informed that an international arrest warrant had been issued by the Algerian authorities in November 2001, on the grounds that he was allegedly a member of a "terrorist group operating abroad". Smail Touati denied this accusation. The following day, he was remanded in custody and a judicial investigation was opened. He remained in detention for four and a half months without being charged. He reported that, in December 2003, he was taken from prison for questioning to the Antar barracks in the Hydra district of Algiers. On 24 April 2004 he was released pending trial, but his passport remained confiscated to prevent him from leaving the country while the investigation against him was ongoing.

He was arrested again at his family’s home in Algiers on 17 June 2004, apparently in connection with statements extracted under duress from his brother Toufik, who had been arrested three days before him. The arrest was carried out by three plain clothes officers who did not identify themselves and presented no warrant. They asked him to follow them to an unmarked Peugeot 205 and took him away in the back of the car. When the car reached the motorway he was forced to lower his head to prevent him from seeing where he was being taken. He told Amnesty International that he recognized the place as the Antar barracks where he had been questioned the previous year. When he arrived, he was reportedly shown his brother Toufik, who was already being detained there.

Smail Touati was held for some 11 days in a cell with no windows, no electricity, no mattress and a dirty blanket. During this time his family was not informed of his place of detention and he was not allowed to communicate with them. He says he was tortured during the first four days of his detention and asked, during interrogation, to provide information about anyone he knew in the UK, Sweden, or Ireland. He was reportedly beaten, threatened that he would not see his children again and subjected to a torture method known as chiffon: he said that he was undressed down to his underwear with his T-shirt stuffed into his mouth and water was poured through into his stomach. He was forced to sign an interrogation report claiming that he had been in contact with two Algerians abroad who are wanted by the authorities for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.

On 27 June 2004, when brought before an examining magistrate together with his brother Toufik, Smail Touati declared having been tortured and forced to sign the interrogation report, but the judge did not order an investigation, nor a medical examination. The minutes of the hearing mention that Smail Touati retracted the statements made during questioning by the DRS. To Amnesty International’s knowledge no investigation has been opened into the allegations of torture.

Smail Touati’s name features on a document issued on 7 November 2001 by the prosecutor of Sidi M’hamed court in Algiers listing 79 Algerians as wanted for "creating and belonging to terrorist groups abroad". The document makes reference to an accompanying DRS report, but this report has not been made available to defence lawyers or the judiciary.

Smail Touati was placed under judicial control by the examining judge, awaiting trial. In March 2006, the charges were dropped and all judicial proceedings were ended, in accordance with measures for "national reconciliation". At the time of writing, he was unable to leave Algeria and return to Ireland where his family live, as his passport remained confiscated.

Amari Saïfi

According to media reports, Amari Saïfi, born in 1968 in Batna, was handed over to Algeria from Libya during 2004. He is reportedly a senior member of the GSPC and a former paratrooper in the Algerian army before 1991, also known as Abderrezak El Para. According to media reports, he was kept in secret detention for at least three months and has not been seen in public since he was handed over to Algeria.

Algerian authorities had requested Amari Saïfi’s handover, among other things, for his alleged role in the killings of dozens of soldiers during ambushes by the GSPC, notably in 2002 and 2003. He was also accused of having led an armed group which abducted 32 European tourists in the Algerian Sahara in February and March 2003, many of whom were German nationals. According to reports by German judicial sources who had launched an international arrest warrant against him, he was captured in Chad in May 2004. Algerian media reports indicated that he had been handed over to the Algerian authorities by the end of October 2004. At the time, Minister of the Interior Noureddine Zerhouni confirmed to media sources that Amari Saïfi was detained in Algeria.

Press reports suggested that after he was handed over to Algeria, he was interrogated by the intelligence service and was not brought before a prosecutor until January 2005. He was then reportedly remanded in custody at Serkadji prison, Algiers.

Also according to press reports, he was absent during a court hearing in Algiers on 24 April 2005 in which he was the principal defendant and was accused of "creating a terrorist group" and "distribution of subversive documents". According to the same sources, judicial authorities considered him as a fugitive as they had apparently not been able to question him. He was reportedly also absent from a court hearing in Biskra which was postponed indefinitely as a consequence. On 25 June 2005 the criminal court of Algiers [tribunal d’Alger/cour criminelle d’Alger] reportedly sentenced Amari Saïfi to life imprisonment in his absence for "creating an armed terrorist group aiming to spread terror among the population" ["création d'un groupe terroriste armé visant a semer la terreur au sein de la population"; takwin djama’a irhabiya musallaha tanshur al tarwi’ fi haqq al muwatinin, see docs Boubker Sadek].

Five other defendants who were present in court were reportedly sentenced in the same trial. Quoting defence lawyers, press reports stated that the trial had taken place exclusively on the basis of statements made by the defendants during interrogation by the security forces. In court, the defendants reportedly retracted the statements they had made during interrogation, stating that the confessions had been extracted under duress. At the end of June, Interior Minister Noureddine Zerhouni responded on Algerian radio to questions about the absence of Amari Saïfi during the trial, stating that he was "under investigation". During a press conference on 9 July 2005 the head of the Algerian police, Ali Tounsi, reportedly stated the he did not know where Amari Saïfi was. The whereabouts of Amari Saïfi remain unknown and it is unclear whether he benefited from exemption from prosecution in the context of measures for "national reconciliation".

Mourad Ikhlef

Algerian Mourad Ikhlef, born on 20 February 1968 and a refugee in Canada, was arrested in Montréal on 12 December 2001 and forcibly returned to Algeria on 28 February 2003. He had been detained in Canada on account of his alleged links with Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted of trying to enter the USA with explosives in December 1999 and planning to carry out a bomb attack at Los Angeles airport during the millennium celebrations. Mourad Ikhlef maintained that he had merely been a neighbour of Ahmed Ressam in Canada and that he had not been involved in planning any acts of violence. The Canadian authorities stated that he posed a risk to national security and deported him to Algeria on 1 March 2003. They said they had received assurances from the Algerian authorities that he would not be subjected to ill-treatment if returned to Algeria.

In Algeria Mourad Ikhlef had been sentenced in absentia by an Algiers special court to life imprisonment in September 1993 on the principal charge of "membership of a terrorist group operating in Algeria and abroad", apparently on the basis of confessions extracted from another detainee under torture. Mourad Ikhlef denied the charges. He said that he had left Algeria for Italy in 1992 and having later gone to Canada. In 1999 he had approached the Algerian embassy in Ottawa in order to have this sentence annulled, in the context of measures of exemption from prosecution under the Civil Harmony Law. The embassy reportedly responded that in order to do so he needed to return to Algeria. As an asylum-seeker in Canada, he was unable to leave the country at the time.

As Mourad Ikhlef had been sentenced in absentia he should have been brought before the judicial authorities upon return to allow for a retrial, in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedures Code. However, upon arrival at Algiers airport, he was immediately arrested by officers of the DRS and transferred to army barracks. During the transfer he was reportedly forced to lie on his stomach to prevent him from seeing where he was being taken. He believes that he was held either in Ben Aknoun, or at the Antar barracks in Hydra. He was held by the DRS for 10 days, during which time he says he was pressurized and insulted. A lawyer who asked the judicial authorities about his whereabouts was reportedly informed that he was being held by the DRS, but did not receive information about his place of detention or the reason for his arrest. His family who contacted the police to find out where he was detained were told that the police was not holding him and did not know where he was.

Lawyers acting on his behalf, who happened to be in court on that day, believed they recognized him when he was taken to court on 10 March 2003 by officers of the DRS. When they asked him if he was Mourad Ikhlef he denied his identity, reportedly after one of the DRS officers stepped on his foot. When he was presented to the examining judge he was accompanied by DRS officers and not assisted by a lawyer, despite the fact that the lawyers had announced their presence to court officials and were waiting outside the court room. They were reportedly refused access to the hearing by the examining judge and a court official, apparently at the behest of the DRS officers. A request by the defence lawyers to annul the minutes of the hearing due to the absence of legal counsel, in violation of the Criminal Procedures Code, was not granted. The court [chambre d’accusation] maintained the records of the first hearing stating that Mourad Ikhlef had expressly renounced his right to being assisted by a lawyer. Mourad Ikhlef said that he had not been informed of his right to legal counsel and that he had been too scared to insist on the presence of a lawyer. He was charged with alleged terrorist activities and remanded in custody.

In July 2003 Mourad Ikhlef was acquitted of the charges brought against him in 1993. On 8 November 2005 he was convicted of "membership of a terrorist group operating abroad aiming to harm the interests of Algeria" and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. He was apparently sentenced exclusively on the basis of the statements he had made while in the custody of the DRS which, according to his testimony, had been made under duress. At the hearing, he denied having any links with armed groups. Mourad Ikhlef was released on 26 March 2006 and informed that all judicial proceedings against him would be ended in the context of measures for "national reconciliation".

Mourad Ikhlef was arrested again at his home in the El Harrach district of Algiers at about 1am on 3 April 2006. The arrest was reportedly carried out by 10 plain-clothes officers who were accompanied by uniformed police officers. His family said that they were not given any reason for the arrest. He was reportedly detained for three days at the Antar barracks and not told why he had been arrested again. On 5 April, he was transferred to Serkadji prison without having been brought before a prosecutor, or a judge, and without any judicial decision to justify his imprisonment. On 9 April, Minister of Justice Tayeb Belaiz was quoted in press reports as saying that the arrest had been carried out to correct an error by the judges who had authorized his release. According to the Minister, Mourad Ikhlef should not have benefited from measures for "national reconciliation" due to his alleged involvement in planning attacks with explosives.

Boubker Sadek

Algerian national Boubker Sadek, born on 7 May 1969, was arrested on 3 September 2002 in Oran and transferred to the barracks of Ben Aknoun in Algiers the following day. He was arrested supposedly on the basis of information received by the security forces from former armed group members that he was the leading member of an armed group conspiring with foreign elements to overthrow the regime, and that he possessed arms and ammunition. Three other people were arrested in connection to the same accusations.

Boubker Sadek, a decorative painter by profession, was allegedly a former member of an armed group active in the western Algerian provinces of Oran, Tlemçen and Maghnia. He had been arrested in 1995, tried and convicted in connection with alleged assassination attempts of political figures. He was released in 1999 in the context of amnesty measures under the Civil Harmony Law.

According to his own account, Boubker Sadek was tortured while detained at the Ben Aknoun barracks. He reported having his body stretched and being tortured with the chiffon method and electric shocks. One of his torturers reportedly put his thumbs on Boubker Sadek’s eyes and pressed, causing injury to his eyes. Apparently as a result of the trauma and injuries sustained under torture and ensuing lack of medical care during garde à vue detention, Boubker Sadek lost the use of his left eye.

Boubker Sadek reported that he received medical care only after he had been brought before the judicial authorities on 17 September 2002 and a medical examination was carried out upon his transfer to Serkadji prison in Algiers. Four days later he was admitted to the prison hospital where doctors apparently diagnosed detachment of the retina, a condition which may be facilitated by severe trauma and requires prompt surgery. On 25 September he underwent surgery, but this was unsuccessful in restoring the use of his eye. After complaining to the prison administration he underwent further surgery in January 2003, but this did not revert the damage to his eye either. He says that his condition deteriorated during his imprisonment and that the eyesight on his other eye has weakened.

Boubker Sadek says that he asked the doctor who treated him to issue a certificate about his medical condition, but the doctor reportedly refused, saying that he could not do so without permission by his superior.

According to the interrogation report, Boubker Sadek admitted to the DRS that he had been active in 2002 as the head of an armed group in the Oran region which maintained contact with individuals in England, France and Morocco. The report also claims he admitted to having plotted to kill foreign nationals, priests, officials and others, and to having hidden arms, ammunition and communication equipment which the group planned to use. Boubker Sadek later denied these accusations in court and stated that he had not admitted to them, but that they had been added to the interrogation report without his knowledge. The investigation report by the judicial police also stated that two firearms, a hand grenade and a satellite phone had been discovered in Boubker Sadek’s house. Boubker Sadek later told the examining judge that his house had been searched when he was arrested and that nothing had been found at the time.

When he was first brought before a judge, on 17 September 2002, he did not have access to legal counsel. Boubker Sadek said that he was not informed by the judge of his right to a lawyer and that he had been threatened by the DRS officers who took him to court that if he did not reiterate in front of the judge what he had said under interrogation he would be taken back to the barracks. The minutes of the hearing state that he agreed to making his statement to the judge without the presence of a lawyer. He was charged, among other things, with creating an armed group aiming at committing killings, and possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives. At the first court hearing, he did not state that he had been tortured. During later hearings with the examining judge, in particular a hearing conducted on 26 April 2003, Boubker Sadek made detailed allegations of torture and complained about the permanent damage to his eye. The judge apparently did not order an investigation into these allegations. Boubker Sadek said that he asked the judge to order a medical examination, but the judge reportedly dismissed the request. The minutes of the court session make an unspecific mention that Boubker Sadek denied the charges against him and that he had been forced to sign the interrogation report "under duress and under threat" [taht al daght wa taht al tahdid].

On 30 October 2004 Boubker Sadek was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating an armed group and possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives. His lawyers lodged an appeal to the supreme court which remained pending at the end of March 2006. In 2005 he was transferred to a prison in Oran, upon his own request, to facilitate visits by his family who live in western Algeria.

Salaheddine Bennia and Mohamed Harizi

Mohamed Harizi, born on 1 February 1974, and Salaheddine Bennia, born on 24 February 1974, were arrested in Algeria in December 2002 and June 2003 respectively. The two men are cousins and had left Algeria in August 1992. In the 1990s both had apparently travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to training camps in Pakistan, before fighting alongside the Taleban in the war in Afghanistan.

After the US air strikes in Afghanistan began, Mohamed Harizi reportedly fled to Pakistan and later to Turkey. In August 2002 he returned to Algeria voluntarily and went back to living with his family, apparently without being arrested by the security forces.

He was arrested on 15 December 2002 at the family home in Mahdia, in the province of Tiaret. According to reports by his family, security forces stormed the house at 11.30 at night. They did not identify themselves or present an arrest warrant. On 16 December 2002 the family lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor, seeking information as to who had arrested Mohamed Harizi and why, and asking that the manner in which the arrest was carried out be investigated. According to Amnesty International’s information, no investigation was ordered and carried out following the complaint. Until Mohamed Harizi was presented to the judicial authorities in early 2005, his family did not receive any information as to which security service had arrested him and why, and where he was being detained.

Salaheddine Bennia was arrested in June 2003 after being forcibly returned to Algiers from the Netherlands. He had reportedly fled from Afghanistan to Iran, been deported to Malaysia and travelled from there to the Netherlands.

Mohamed Harizi and Salaheddine Bennia were held in secret detention at the Antar barracks in Hydra, Algiers, for months without charge or trial. Salaheddine Bennia was detained there for some 19 months, Mohamed Harizi for two years and 46 days. Both men reported having been tortured by DRS officers with electric shocks and the chiffon method during the initial months of detention at Antar. Before being released from DRS detention, they were forced to sign a declaration that they had been treated humanely and not been subjected to any form of ill-treatment.

Salaheddine Bennia and Mohamed Harizi were brought before the judicial authorities on 29 January 2005, in the case of Mohamed Harizi over two years after he had been taken into detention. They were charged with "belonging to a terrorist group operating abroad" and "apology for terrorist acts" and remanded in custody in Serkadji prison, Algiers. The men were not assisted by a lawyer when they first appeared before an examining judge. They did not state to the judicial authorities that they had been subjected to torture, apparently for fear of being taken back to the barracks. No investigation is known to have been opened into the extended period of secret detention by the DRS, or the circumstances of their arrest and detention.

When their lawyer asked during a later court hearing on what grounds the two men had been detained for such extended periods of time, he was told they had been placed under a control order requiring them to remain at a fixed address, not detained. With difficulty he was able to obtain the orders, dated 6 January 2003 in the case of Mohamed Harizi, and 28 June 2003 in the case of Salaheddine Bennia. The orders required the men to remain within the confines of Algiers province, but did not specify the address where they are to remain nor define the duration of the measure, raising concerns that they had been issued to cover up the fact that Salaheddine Bennia and Mohamed Harizi were in fact secretly and illegally detained by the DRS.

On 3 March 2006 Salaheddine Bennia and Mohamed Harizi were released from detention and informed that all judicial proceedings against them would be stopped in the context of "national reconciliation" measures.

Mohamed Sebbar

Mohamed Sebbar, an Algerian national and former fighter in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was arrested at his home in Oran on 27 December 2002 by officers of the DRS and held in secret detention for seven months. During this time he had no contact with the outside world and his family did not receive any information about him.

Mohamed Sebbar was born on 31 July 1967 in Oran. According to his own account, he left Algeria for Bosnia in April 1992 to volunteer to fight on the side of the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) forces. He remained a fighter until the end of the war in 1995, married a Bosnian woman and became a father of three. When the Bosnian authorities expelled foreign Muslim fighters, he was forced to leave Bosnia and travelled to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia between 1999 and 2001. He then decided to return to Algeria with his wife and three children. In 1999 the Civil Harmony Law had been passed in Algeria, granting exemption from prosecution to individuals who would have been liable to be prosecuted in Algeria for alleged terrorist activities. In June 2002 Mohamed Sebbar returned to his country of origin, having received assurances from the Bosnian authorities that he would not be prosecuted in Algeria. He initially did not face any difficulties with the security forces.

When he was arrested in December 2002 he reported having been transferred immediately from Oran to Algiers, detained in barracks in the Ben Aknoun district of Algiers, and locked in a cell of one by two metres.

He said that after five days he was taken to another room and interrogated by some 10 officers who asked whether he had met, or was in contact with, Hassan Hattab, the leader of the GSPC, or Osama Bin Laden. He says that, when he said that he had never been in contact with either of them, he was tortured. He stated that he was undressed and violently beaten before being laid on a wooden bench and attached to it. One of the officers reportedly held his head in place while another put a cloth in his mouth, pinched his nose and poured dirty water into his mouth. He says that this treatment continued until he choked or lost consciousness and was repeated several times until he lost his voice.

He reportedly also had electricity applied to his body, in particular his genitals, and cold water poured over him, causing intense pain through electric shocks. He also reported having been beaten on the soles of his feet with a heavy baton until he could not feel his feet any more and was unable to walk. After one hour the officers carried him back to his cell and threatened him that if he did not answer their questions they would continue to torture him.

The torture reportedly continued for a whole month. He says that, when the officers threatened him to arrest his wife, to torture and rape her in front of him and to rape him in front of her, he agreed to make any statement they asked him to make.

He remained detained at Ben Aknoun for seven months. According to his testimony, he was fed a sparse amount of soup and bread, and half a glass of water per day. He was not given water to wash before praying and allowed to shower once a month for a few minutes only. The officers reportedly humiliated him by forcing him to walk on hands and knees and told him they were the "Gods of Algeria". He stated that a senior officer put a gun to his head and threatened to "disappear" him, like they had "disappeared" many others. The same officer reportedly told him that they were the rulers of Algeria, and that the civil authorities could do nothing without them.

Mohamed Sebbar said that during his time at Ben Aknoun he heard screams of other detainees being tortured nearly every day. On 2 August 2003 he was transferred to Antar together with eight others who had reportedly been detained in Ben Aknoun for over nine months. Before his transfer to Antar, a senior officer of the DRS reportedly told him that the reason he was tortured was to ascertain that he did not have any contact with armed groups operating inside Algeria, in the interest of security.

He alleges that, at Antar, he was forced, under threat of being executed, to sign statements drawn from the confessions he had made under torture, as well as a declaration that he had not been tortured or ill-treated during detention. Before being presented to the judicial authorities on 27 September 2003, a DRS officer reportedly warned him that the judge and prosecutor were on their side and that, if he did not go along with what he had signed, he could be taken back to the barracks at any moment. The same officer took him to court.

Mohamed Sebbar said that he informed the prosecutor that he wished to make a complaint for torture, and that the officer who had taken him to court was one of his torturers. The prosecutor reportedly claimed that this was nothing to do with him and that he should contact the examining judge instead, but the judge also dismissed the allegations. Mohamed Sebbar was not assisted by a lawyer and the judge did apparently not inform him of his right to legal counsel. The court documents of these hearings do not reflect the fact that he stated that he had been tortured. Mohamed Sebbar was charged with "belonging to an armed terrorist group operating abroad" and remanded in custody in Serkadji prison, Algiers, where he remained for more than one year.

On 11 November 2004 the criminal court of Algiers acquitted Mohamed Sebbar and he was released. To Amnesty International’s knowledge the allegations of torture have remained uninvestigated.

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(1) Algeria: initial report of an Amnesty International delegation's visit to Algeria, 6 - 25 May 2005 (AI Index: MDE 28/008/2005).

(2) UK/Middle East and North Africa: Memorandums of Understanding and NGO Monitoring: a challenge to fundamental human rights, January 2006, (AI Index: POL 30/002/2006).

(3) Amnesty International has repeatedly issued recommendations to the Algerian authorities to end secret detention and torture, see for example the report Algeria: Steps towards change or empty promises? (AI Index: MDE 28/005/2003).

(4) Algeria: New Amnesty Law Will Ensure Atrocities Go Unpunished, 1 March 2006, AI Index: MDE 28/005/2006.

(5) Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 8, para. 2. UN Document HRI/GEN/1/Rev.5.

(6) See Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, E/CN.4/2003/68, para. 26(g).

(7) Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, E/CN.4/2005/6, para. 77.

(8) Human Rights Committee, General Comment number 29: States of Emergency, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11, August 2001, para. 4.

(9) Ibid.

(10) Ibid., para. 13(b).

(11) Resolution 2005/39, 19 April 2005, para. 9.

(12) Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to the UN General Assembly, in UN Document A/56/156, July 2001, para. 39.

(13) Ibid.

(14) UN Document A/56/156, July 2001, para. 39(d).

(15) UN Document E/CN.4/2005/6, 1 December 2004, para. 70.

(16) UN Document A/57/173, July 2002, para. 23.

(17) Ordonnance no. 06-01 of 27 February 2006 on the implementation of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, published in the Algerian official bulletin (Journal Officiel) of 28 February 2006.

(18) Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 20, para. 14., UN Document HRI\GEN\1\Rev.1 at 30 (1994).

SOURCE: Amnesty International