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At the beginning of 2008, in front of his home, Jean (real name withheld) listened to the story of Fabien (ibidem), a member of his family. The latter told him of a recent altercation with a representative of the State, who had tried to extort official documents from him. During the discussion, the same representative burst in front of Fabien, once again insisting to...

Until 2011, Clement (alias), a political opponent, used to work as a teacher. He has been arrested at home by security forces, under the false pretext of threatening the security of the state. Taken by force to a police station, the security personal attempted to extort a confession from him. On the spot, he has been subjected to several acts of torture and receiv...

André (real name withheld) was a ranked army member. One night, he was jogging with his friends when gun shots suddenly rang out. Armed men, some of whom were in civilian clothes and others in police uniform, rushed in and requested everyone to leave the premises. Unsure how to react, André and his friends remained in place. Within minutes, André was tied up, sear...

Claude (real name withheld) was stopped in the street by Burundian State agents. Without any explanations, they simply threatened him with a weapon and ordered him to follow them, confiscating his car keys. During Claude’s interrogation, they tried by all means to make him “confess” fictitious facts: blows all over his body with bats and iron wires, suspension by...

On 17 December 2014, agents of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) arrested F. at his home, without any arrest warrant. He was immediately locked up in an ANR solitary confinement cell and tortured over a long period of time to make him “confess” to stealing a large sum of money from his former associate, who happened to be very close to the ANR Commander. Despite...

Ms H. works at Panzi Hospital alongside Dr Mukwege, helping female victims of sexual violence. Her work had already attracted several threats and, on 19 June 2013, she was abducted from her home by six armed men. Kidnapped for three days, she was raped and abused. On the night of the third day, Ms H. was dumped – handcuffed and unconscious – on the roadside. Ms H....

Torture, a common practice in East DRC In Eastern DRC, torture is used as a widespread practice by the armed forces and particularly by agents of the National Intervention Legion (LENI), a specialist intervention unit of the Congolese National Police. From 2014 to 2015, local NGOs gathered numerous personal accounts from the population about cases of abuse, arbitrary...

Rached Jaïdane Wrongly suspected of inciting an attack against the party in power, Rached Jaïdane, a former political opponent, was arrested in Tunisia in 1993. Among the acts of cruelty that he suffered during his detention, Rached Jaïdane was punched, kicked and beaten with truncheons all over his body; he was subjected to the “roast chicken” method of torture,...

Among other positions, Mr M. G., of Somalian nationality, was the President of the Somali High Court from 1971 until the demise of Siad Barré’s government on January 26, 1991. During his mandate, several death sentences were imposed and political opponents were severely repressed. For example, a Minister, a senior official and 11 demonstrators who had organized strik...

Suspect X. After his involvement in the coup d’état on January 12, 1992, X., of Algerian nationality, held important positions in the Algerian government until 1994. In that period, people suspected of being Islamist supporters or activists were the victims of violent repression (torture, enforced disappearance, etc.). On November 10, 2004, TRIAL filed a report of...

General Habib Ammar was Commander of the Tunisian National Guard from 1984 to 1987. Following the coup d’état in 1987, he was promoted to Minister of the Interior, a post which he held for a year. During his mandate, the Ministry’s offices were transformed into centers of detention and torture. According to numerous human rights organizations, General Habib Ammar...