Massacre in the Serkadji Prison (21 st , 22 nd and 23 rd February 1995)

Excerpt from the report entitled "The Extrajudicial Executions" edited by Vincent Genestet (May 2004) presented by the Committee for Justice in Algeria to the Permanent Tribunal of the People in Algeria.

The massacres that took place at the Serkadji prison have had strong repercussions at a national and an international level, due to their scale and to the situation created within the prison (of Algiers). Important sources of information are available and can be accessed on the website of Algeria-Watch , including:

•  The Preliminary Report on the Serkadji massacre that arose on the 21 st February 1995 drawn up by: the National Union of Algerian lawyers, the committee of lawyers working on the case , the families of the victims and detainees of the Serkadji prison, and the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (3rd February 1995).

•  Arab Commission for Human Rights : From carnage to the mockery of justice (January 1998)

•  The Serkadji Trial: 25 th March to 4 th April 2001, Quotidien d'Oran: Dakhla Dridi

We summarise below the main facts that characterise the massacre:

•  At least 96 detainees and 4 guards died between the 21 st and 23 rd February at the prison of Serkadji at Algiers. According to the official version of events this happened during an "attempted escape" that turned into a "mutiny" initiated by the convicted prisoners and those detained under the laws on terrorism.

•  Among the many events that took place in Algeria since 1992 this horrific episode is the only one that was subject to many inquiries and reports, as well as a full judicial trial.

•  Officially, the head of the government announced the creation of an inquiry commission under the authority of the Ministry of Justice on the 25 th February 1995, 48 hours after the end of events. On the 27 th February, the Algerian press announced the creation of this commission by the Ministry of Interior. Even though it should have produced a report, nothing has ever been published by the commission. On the 11 th March 1995 the television channels broadcasted lengthy confessions from surviving prisoners interrogated by the chief prosecuting officer, which confirmed the authority's version of events. On the 16 th May, the National Observatory of Human Rights ( ONDH ) announced that a report was published by a "non-governmental commission", that they claim to have had the initiative to set up themselves. The conclusions of this report once again corroborated the official version of events, namely the failure of an attempted escape organised by the prisoners, with the support of the guards. Some prisoners on death row were able to open their cells, thanks to a copied set of keys passed to them by the accomplice guard. Then, they were able to liberate the other prisoners, kill four guards and try to escape. In discovering that their attempt had failed they liberated hundreds of fellow detainees and took as hostages the non-political detainees. Fearing for the hostages' lives, the authorities gave the order for the final assault. The report concluded that " the large number of people killed following the assault by the security forces was deplorable " and regretted " just as much the violence of a hardline group of prisoners, probably those that had assassinated the four agents as well as the taking of hostages of twenty-six detainees."

•  Independent inquiries that were carried out, in Algeria as well as by international organisations, highlight the very high number of interrogations. They also reveal many violations of clauses of national and international laws during the days and weeks before the 21 st February 1995 (A) , as well as during the events (B) and afterwards (C) .

•  (A) Before the "mutiny" took place, the following was noted:

•  Based upon lists that were pre-established by the authorities, some detainees were transferred during the days before the "mutiny" from one prison cell to another, and this was carried out during off-service hours. These transfers occurred on a regular basis, usually random and during normal working hours.

•  On the eve of the "mutiny", also outside the hours of normal prison service, a meticulous search was ordered by the prison director. This was carried out in the wing where the prisoners on death row were detained.

•  Some prisoners had been moved from other prisons (in particular Berroughia, Chlef, El Harrach), and had been transferred to Serkadji in the previous weeks. These transfers were carried out illegally by hooded agents, without the necessary transfer documents normally issued by the public prosecutor's office. Some prisoners were brought via the central police station at Algiers and were tortured before being sent on to Serkadji. Many of these prisoners were killed during the "mutiny".

•  Some prisoners on death row who were imprisoned in central prisons were transferred to Serkadji, despite the fact that it was an ordinary prison, which was theoretically prohibited under Algerian law.

•  Another illegal act was that the prisoners on death row were kept on at Serkadji, despite the legal delays. Many of these were killed when the security forces carried out their assault.

•  The guard who was allegedly an accomplice had been recruited a short while before, and despite his professional inexperience he was assigned to the wing of the prisoners on death row, where the "attempted escape" began.

•  A low ranking guard had been assigned the duty of officer-of-the-day the night that the "events" began.

•  (B) According to the witness statements collected by the families of the victims, by their lawyers and by the activists from human rights organisations in Algeria, the prison cells were opened by masked men who disappeared immediately afterwards. Many hundreds of prisoners therefore found themselves "free" in the courtyard of the prison, with the bodies of five people that had been killed: four guards and one prisoner. Faced with the arrival of the security forces, some well known prisoners such as Abdelkader Hachani and Abdelhak Layda were given the responsibility by the prisoners to head a mediation team that would negotiate with the authorities in order to find a peaceful solution. During six hours of negotiation there were no further victims. The mediation group proposed that all detainees would return to their cells and a transparent inquiry should take place in order to establish the responsibility of the events that led to the five deaths. They had only one condition: that three well-known human rights lawyers be asked to come and be present. The authorities refused this single condition, and before the prisoners had begun to return to their cells, they separated and kidnapped the mediators and gave the prisoners ten minutes to clear the courtyard. Immediately afterwards the security forces opened fire, mainly targeted shooting, then assaulted the courtyard and then the cells and detention rooms. Once "calm" was restored prisoners were called by their names and executed. The surviving prisoners were subjected to multiple acts of violence and torture.

•  (C) During the following days, dozens of victims were secretly buried in the reserved section of the El Alia cemetery under the name of "X - Algerian" together with other executed victims brought from elsewhere. The management of the prison, which was not changed despite the demands made by the lawyers of the victims' families, immediately proceeded in the restoration of all prison hallways and cells, and in this way destroying all material proof. The chief prosecutor opened a judicial inquiry for the attempted escape and the murders, which proceeded in much the same manner as the "televised instructions" that had been broadcast on the 11 th March showed.

•  The trial that took place at the end of the investigation, which was held during the month of January 1997, unfortunately did not clear up all the questions left in doubt and which continue to cast shadows upon this affair. The lawyers were not able to obtain the statements from the most important witnesses, the members of the mediation group, A. Hachami and A. Layda, as well as Kamel Rezzag-Barra, the chief prosecutor at the time. They were able to demonstrate that the number of people killed, ninety-six, was far smaller than the real number. The group of lawyers presented the court with the files of the prisoners that included a series of official letters from the authorities informing the victims' families of their deaths during "the mutiny", but their names do not appear on the official list of the victims and in the prosecuting files. The accusation statement on the other hand included photos of victims labelled only as "X - Algerian". The court refused to take into account this evidence just as it had refused to consider the statements of some detainees who in their original statements had recognised some of the "mutineers", but had since retracted their statements.