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 | |  | | Khaled Ben Said | | | context : | Tunisia  | | judgement place : | France | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Complaint for torture filed in France in May 2001; fled France after being informed of the complaint; sentenced in absentia to 8 years inmprisonment for complicity in torture on 15 December 2008 | | position : | Police Superintendent |
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| | | | This trial is the second application in France of the principle of « universal jurisdiction », following that of the former Mauritanian captain Ely Ould Dah (see his Trial Watch Profile) who was sentenced to a ten years prison term for torture in 2005.
This principle establishes the right of universal jurisdiction by national courts (in this case France) to prosecute the presumed perpetrators of serious international crimes, regardless of where they have been committed, and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators or the victims. It is notably provided for under the International Convention against Torture and other Inhumane or Degrading Treatments or Punishments, adopted on 10 December 1984, which was the basis for this action in France. This trial took place, even though a bill being debated by the French Parliament tended to call the principle of universal jurisdiction into question, by making it nearly impossible to open new proceedings in France on this basis.
Article 689-1 of the Code of French Criminal Procedure states: “In the application of the International Conventions referred to in the following articles, any person present in France who is believed guilty of a breach of law, outside of the territory of the Republic, as enumerated under one of these articles can be prosecuted and judged by the French judicial system”
In the case at hand, the prosecution’s opening address was made on 16 January 2002, at a time when the presence of Khaled Ben Saïd on French territory was a safe assumption given that the preliminary investigation had established his position as Vice-Consul in Strasbourg, and given the direct telephone contacts the investigators had had with him. In fact, the police department had issued a report on a telephone conversation which took place on 2 November 2001 during which Khaled Ben Saïd was informed of the official inquiry opened up against him as well as of the nature of the allegations with which he was accused.
The Prosecutor would not have asked the examining magistrate to open an investigation if he had not been convinced of Khaled Ben Saïd’s presence in France at the date of his opening address.
This trial should in particular help to break the appalling habit of recourse to torture in Tunisia. It represented the ultimate appeal for the plaintiff in her hope to obtain justice at the end of a fair and just procedure. | |    | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Tunisia | | | date of birth : | | | 29.10.1962 | | | last time seen : | | | Tunisia | | | period of charges : | | | 11.10.1996 - 12.10.1996 | | | judgement period : | | | 15.12.2008 - 15.12.2008 | | | charges : | | | Torture | | | profile last modified : | | | 13.11.2009 |
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