Mauritania: Incommunicado detention, torture and risk of forcible return to Tunisia of Mr. Abdelkrim Bouraoui

Mr.Abdelkrim Ben Fraj Bouraoui, born in 1980 in Tunisia, owns a trade of vehicle spare parts in Nouakchott where he has regularly resided since 2005.

Mr. Bouraoui was arrested for the first time in Nouakchott by the State Security (Amn Eddaoula) on 18 January  2008 and was detained for a month ,while the legal duration of police custody, which is already excessive, should have been 15 days.

Presented before the prosecutor of the Tribunal of Nouakchott on 18 February 2008, he was released without being prosecuted.

On 3 May 2008, Mr. Bouraoui was again arrested by officers from the State Security along with many other people, nearly a hundred, in an operation officially presented by the authorities as falling within the framework of counter-terrorism following the attack against the Embassy of Israel on 2 February  2008.

He was again detained and held in solitary confinement for 25 days in an unhealthy small cell of 1 x 2 meters, without ventilation, in which there was a suffocating heat. During this detention, Mr. Bouraoui was severely tortured during his interrogations.

He was stripped, beaten, deprived of his natural needs and sleep for several consecutive days. He was also tied with handcuffs behind his  back and hung in the position of the "Jaguar", a method of torture used by Mauritanian security services.

Presented on 28 May 2008 before the Investigating Judge of the 3rd chamber of the Court of the 1st Forum of Nouakchott, along with others arrested in the same context, Mr. Bouraoui showed obvious signs of torture.

He was accused in the case of the attack against the Embassy of Israel which occurred on 2 February 2008, but during that day he was being detained in the premises of the State security services for more than 15 days. In view of this obvious alibi, the magistrate, Mr. Ould Yemeh, although recognizing the inconsistency of the prosecution decided to place Mr Bouraoui  under judicial supervision, while most other people involved in the case have been released.

Due to opposition by the prosecutor, Mr. Bouraoui was not released and taken to a military barracks controlled by army headquarters where he is still detained.

Alkarama fears that Mr. Bouraoui ,who is currently imprisoned in a place not intended for that purpose, is still subjected to torture and/or ill-treatment, and has requested an urgent intervention for him to be placed under the protection of the law. Mauritania has been a party to the Convention against Torture since 17 November  2004.

Alkarama submitted an urgent communication on 12 June 2006 to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for about 18 people in connection with a wave of arrests in Mauritania between April and June 2005 which included members of the opposition, presidents of associations, teachers, lawyers, journalists, from  various political currents, as well as ordinary citizens known for expressing views critical of government policy. All had been detained incommunicado for a period of 20 to 44 days and were subjected to severe torture and particularly inhuman and degrading treatment. Those arrested were released in June 2007. (see communiqué ). The Working Group had concluded that the complainants had been subjected to arbitrary detention. (See communiqué)

As in other Arab countries, serious violations of human rights have been committed in Mauritania in connection with the fight against terrorism. This situation seems to persist amid the fact that the elections of November 2006 had raised hope within the population that the new government would commit to democratisation of public life and respect human rights.