Doctor accused of committing crimes dies after 30 months in detention due to detention conditions and lack of appropriate medical treatment

Facts

The authors of the communication are Annie Daboussi, husband of Jilani Daboussi, and their two children, Samy and Sarah, all French nationals. Jilani, a doctor who held various public positions, was accused of embezzlement, corruption, and favoritism. He was the subject of three successive criminal prosecutions and was remanded in custody. At the time, he was 65 years old with no health problems other than diabetes. Shortly after his detention, he suffered a cardiac arrest. It took the prison authorities several hours to react and organize his transfer to a hospital. He was resuscitated but suffered from complications which required significant treatment, and he was treated in the detention center under unhygienic circumstances. It was finally decided that he would be released, but he died that same night after 30 months in detention. The authors attempted to initiate procedures in France but have had no news on progress of the procedure. They claim Covenant violations of articles 6 (1) (right to life), 7 (prohibition against torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), 9 (1) (freedom from arbitrary detention), 10 (1) (humane treatment), 14 (1) (fair trial), 3 (a) and (c) (due process), and 17 (prohibition against interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence and right to honor and reputation).

Admissibility

The Committee concluded that the authors did not fail to exhaust domestic remedies because none of the numerous complaints filed by the authors led to any investigation and no other domestic remedies would have offered a reasonable prospect of redress. The authors’ claims regarding articles 14 (1) and 3 (a) were general and not sufficiently substantiated and were therefore inadmissible. Furthermore, the authors did not take any steps before domestic courts in relation to attacks on Jilani Daboussi’s reputation and insufficiently substantiated their other article 17 claims, thus claims under article 17 were inadmissible.

Merits

The Committee concluded that the State party’s failure to investigate numerous complaints regarding Jilani Daboussi’s treatment considering his serious medical condition constituted a failure in its duty to protect the life of Jilani Daboussi in violation of article 6 (1) of the Covenant. The Committee also concluded that in view of the seriousness of the allegations and their substantiation, considering that the State party failed to provide specific evidence of measures taken to provide safe and hygienic detention conditions, the communications disclosed a violation of article 7 of the Covenant. The Committee declined to separately consider whether the communication reveals violations of article 10. The Committee concluded that the 30-month pretrial detention was arbitrary in violation of article 9 (1) of the Covenant because it was not provided for by Tunisian law, was repeatedly extended without explanation, and decisions could have been taken on the merits during that time frame. Finally, the 30-month delay, in consideration of his detention and medical conditions, also violated article 14 (3) (c) of the covenant.

Recommendations

The State party should provide adequate compensation to the authors for the violations that Jilani Daboussi suffered.

Implementation

Deadline for implementation: 14 January 2024

More information on the case:

— Franceinfo - Reims: le combat de Sarah Daboussi pour son père, mort en Tunisie après 31 mois d’incarcération sans procès

— VOA Afrique - Enquête en France sur la mort un Tunisie d’un dépoté proche de l’ancien régime