A new torture scandal shook the Algerian police on Saturday (April 3), with the case of a 15-year-old teenager who said he had suffered abuse while in police custody. The young Saïd C. was arrested during a march by the Hirakists of Bab El Oued and was not released until around 11 p.m., according to accounts made by relatives.
According to a heartbreaking video circulating on Facebook, young Saïd C. was unable to formulate correct sentences. With him, two young people console him, including the one who became the poet of Hirak, Mohamed Tadjadit. The latter even claims that Saïd C., visibly very psychologically affected, would have been raped or suffered a sexual assault. It was at the Cavaignac police station in Algiers.
The police officers who interrogated him were said to have been obnoxious to the teenager, resulting in immeasurable psychological torture. According to young Saïd C.’s own statements, he suffered psychological violence. But other Hirakists claim that the teenager even suffered physical and even sexual violence.
The Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH) quickly released a statement denouncing a new episode in this story of torture and mistreatment of Hirak demonstrators and peaceful activists.
LADDH denounces
“The revelations of the Hirakists continue, claiming to be victims of torture and rape during police custody, despite urgent appeals and various arrests by the LADDH from the political and judicial authorities for the opening of an investigation. impartial ”underlines the LADDH, considering that it is a question of“ shedding light and initiating legal proceedings to uphold the law and do justice ”.
For the vice-president of the same organization, Saïd Salhi, it is essential that the prosecution takes action in this case. “Self-referral and the opening of an investigation and judicial information as soon as there are allegations of torture is an obligation of the prosecution,” he said in a post on social networks.
Algerians scandalized
“A few days before the revelations of Boussekine Nabil in Algiers and Chehato Ayoub in El Bayadh, even today it is the young Saïd C., aged 15, arrested today Saturday at the march who declares on his release that ‘he is a victim of rape, while in custody in Algiers ”continues the LADDH, which does not recall the case of the student Walid Nekiche who suffered ill-treatment and sexual abuse in a barracks.
It must be said that the video of young Saïd made Algerians react, who say they are scandalized by this umpteenth case of torture and sexual abuse. Many Internet users saw a will of the power to push the Hirak to rot and violence.
