Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act

The Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: Any public official who detains or abducts a person, and denies committing such act or conceals the fate or whereabouts of such person, resulting in the exclusion of the latter from legal protection. It also provides that the crime of enforced disappearance is a continuous offence until the fate of the disappeared person can be established, and that it cannot be considered a political offence for the purposes of extradition and international cooperation in criminal matters. The crime is aggravated and results in a higher penalty when it led to the victim’s serious injuries, trauma or death, and when it is committed against a person below eighteen years of age, a pregnant woman, a person with physical or mental disabilities, or a person who is not autonomous due to their age or illness. The crime is attenuated and results in a lower penalty if the perpetrator helps to identify the disappeared person prior to the delivery of a court judgment and the latter did not sustain severe injuries or was not under any condition which could endanger their life, or if the perpetrator offers key information that are useful for the prosecution. It also provides that no special circumstances including war, imminent threat of war, domestic political instability or state of emergency may be invoked as a justification of enforced disappearance. The Law provides that an investigation shall be pursued until the disappeared person can be found or until plausible evidence to ascertain their death and to shed light on the commission of the offence and the perpetrator can be acquired. It also provides that the spouses, ascendents, descendants, life partners without marriage registration, custodians and those under custodianship of the person subject to enforced disappearance shall be considered injured parties. The Law provides that when there is a claim that a person is subjected to enforced disappearance, the affected person, the public prosecutor, an inquiry official, the Committee on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance or any person acting in the detainee’s interest have the right to file a motion in a criminal court for the issuance of an order to end the disappearance immediately. Upon receiving the complaint, the court may immediately conduct an ex parte hearing, and has the power to summon a public official or any person to give evidence or to send material to aid the inquiry, and to order a public official to bring the detainee to the Court.