Torture of Mr. Taoufik Elaïba in September 2009

Introduction

Arrested and tortured in September 2009

On 1 September 2009, Taoufik Elaïba – a Tunisian and Canadian national – was violently arrested by National Guard officers and taken to the police station of Laaouina in Tunis. For 11 days – exceeding the legal time limit for police custody –, he was tortured and detained in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. In order to conceal this infringement, the police officers falsified the minutes putting the date of 6 September.

Interrogated about an illegal car trade after being denounced by a relative of Ben Ali’s family, Taoufik Elaïba accused the President’s nephew. Because of this statement, he was subjected to severe and cruel treatment until he signed a self-incriminating confession. He was beaten with various solid objects and endured the falaka and the breaking wheel. Moreover, Taoufik Elaïba spent nights tied to a chair, barely ate and was maintained in poor hygienic condition. Today, he still suffers from physical consequences.

The national procedures

On 11 September 2009, Taoufik Elaïba was heard by an investigating judge in Tunis. The judge did not take into account the allegations of torture and did not denounce the facts to the prosecutor. On the contrary, he placed Taoufik Elaïba in detention in Mornaguia. Mr. Elaïba then filed a complaint for torture on 26 September 2009, on which no action was taken.

In spite, Taoufik Elaïba was sentenced to 22 years of prison on 31 October 2011, for illegal car trade and to 10 years of prison for a limousine trafficking, the judges basing themselves on the confessions signed by the accused under torture during the police custody.

On 22 December 2011, another complaint for torture was filed in order to obtain the initiation of an investigation, subject the victim to a medical examination and in the hope that the confessions would not be taken into account by the appeal judge.

The investigation into the complaint started only in May 2012, 32 months after the lodging of the first complaint. Despite the hearing of the victim and of some witnesses, the investigation has ground to a halt since July 2012.

Notwithstanding the complaints for torture, the Court of Appeal of Tunis confirmed, on 10 May 2012, the ruling of the trial chamber, while reducing the sentences – respectively – from twenty-two to seven years of prison and from ten to one year of prison.

On 2 January 2013, the appeal was dismissed and the sentence rendered by the Court of Appeal became final.

The victim seizes the United Nations Committee against Torture

In June 2013, ACAT and TRIAL filed an individual communication before the UN Committee against Torture on behalf of the victim. Taoufik Elaïba asked the Committee against Torture to recognize that he had been subjected to torture and that Tunisia violated the Convention against Torture, in particular Articles 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

The procedure is currently pending.

The general context

Since the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011, torture – widely used by the former regime – has not disappeared.

This is also due to the prevailing culture of impunity among security forces; almost no effective investigation has even been conducted into those crimes. Thus, the numerous victims have no access to the truth, justice and compensation.