Boughera Kroumi v. Algeria
Key Judgment
Legal Relevance
Keywords: Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Amnesties | Deprivation of Liberty | Interim/Urgent Measures | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims
Themes: Related Crimes
The Committee found that the State had failed in its duty to protect the victim's life, reaffirming that in cases of enforced disappearance the unacknowledged deprivation of liberty removes the person from the protection of the law and places their life at serious and constant risk. It also made a finding of inhuman treatment both with respect to the victim, in light of the suffering involved in being held indefinitely without contact with the outside world and of the appalling conditions in which he had been detained, and with respect to his father, due to the anguish and distress caused by the disappearance of his son and by the uncertainty as to his fate. The Committee further found a violation of the victim's right to liberty and security of the person as he had not been charged or brought before a judicial authority, and no official information was given to his family regarding his fate despite the fact that the authorities certified that his disappearance had occurred “in the context of the national tragedy".
Judgment Date
October 30, 2014
Country
Algeria
Judicial Body
Human Rights Committee
Articles violated
Article 2(3) [ICCPR], Article 6(1) [ICCPR], Article 7 [ICCPR], Article 9 [ICCPR], Article 10(1) [ICCPR], Article 16 [ICCPR], Article 17 [ICCPR]
Facts of the Case
Mr. Yahia Kroumi was arrested at his home in August 1994 by a group of uniformed soldiers and plain clothed military security personnel who were conducting a search operation. Some of those arrested in the course of the operation were taken by lorry to an unknown place of detention. The security forces did not present an arrest warrant or invoke any grounds for the arrest. Mr. Kroumi and the other detainees were subjected to appalling conditions of detention, on account of which most of them died in just one day. The bodies were wrapped in blankets and loaded onto an army lorry. Mr. Kroumi's family took a number of steps to obtain information about him, but did not succeed. In spite of a number of requests, no investigation had been carried out into the disappearance. In 2006, Mr. Kroumi's father had to testify that his son had died “in the context of the national tragedy" in order to receive compensation for his disappearance under national law. In 2011, the Human Rights Committee granted protection measures and asked the State to refrain from invoking domestic legislation against Mr. Kroumi's family.