Malik Medjnoun and Abdelhakim Chenoui were taken into custody in September 1999, after which they were held in secret, unacknowledged detention, respectively for seven and six months. Both allege that they were tortured during this period of enforced disappearance. The Algerian authorities charged them with the murder of the famous Kabyle singer, Matoub Lounes - which they deny – but have so far failed to bring them to trial although they have now been held for nine years. They remain incarcerated at the civil prison of Tizi Ouzou in Kabylia. Malik Medjnoun was near his house when he was seized by three armed men in civilian dress on 28 September 1999. He then disappeared and his family had no word of him while he was held incommunicado in unacknowledged detention by the Department of Information and Security (Département du Renseignement et Securité, DRS), widely known as “Military Security.” He says security officials tortured him continuously for two days, including beating him with a pickaxe handle, subjecting him to electric shocks, and the “chiffon” - in which the victim is forced to swallow dirty water, chemicals or urine through a dirty cloth placed over the mouth. He was held for several months at the Antar barracks in the Ben-Aknoun region of Algiers, which is operated by the DRS, but then transferred to a military hospital in Blida for 28 days when he became so weak that he could no longer stand up. Abdelhakim Chenoui is a former member of an armed group opposed to the government who surrendered himself to the General Prosecutor of Tizi Ouzou on 17 September 1999 under the framework of the Civil Harmony Law. This grants immunity against prosecution to members of various armed groups so long as they have not committed killings, rape, caused anyone permanent disability or placed bombs in public places. He was arrested on 19 September 1999 and then disappeared for six months. He was held secretly at the Center of Chateauneuf in Algiers, run by the DRS, where he is alleged to have been tortured. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, he was tortured using the “chiffon” and electric shocks, subjected to rape with a broom handle, beaten frequently, and suspended by the elbows. The two men were eventually brought before the Tizi Ouzou prosecutor general in March 2000 but they did not have legal representation and were neither informed of their rights nor of any charges against them. Chenoui is reported to have confessed to the murder of Matoub Lounes and implicated Mejnoun in front of the investigative judge, but later to have retracted his confession and said it was made under threats and duress. Mejnoun was only informed of the charges facing him on 2 May 2000. The investigative judge declared the investigation complete in December 2000 and the case was due to be heard by the Tizi Ouzou Criminal Court in May 2001; however, the two men have yet to be brought to trial. The trial was recently set to begin on 9 July 2008, but it was again postponed without a new date being set. The postponement was requested both by the defence and the partie civile (civil petitioner), composed of Matoub’s widow and his two sisters-in-law who had been present at the time of the murder, who insisted that key witnesses not summoned by the court should be called to attend. The UN Human Rights Committee, which reviewed the case of Malik Mejnoun in 2006, ruled that Algeria had violated a number of provisions of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which it is a state party, including the right to liberty and security of person, the right not to be subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and the right to be brought to trial within a reasonable time or to be released.


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