Until when ?

Hamdi was arrested on May 4, 2022 and remanded in custody on a theft charge. During a prison visit on August 15, his brother was informed that Hamdi had been placed in solitary confinement. A week later, Hamdi's father went to the prison to visit his son and learned that he had been transferred to hospital a few days earlier, without his family being informed.

On arrival at the hospital, the father was informed that Hamdi was undergoing surgery. The doctor then told him that his son was partially paralyzed. After the operation, Hamdi told his father that he had been beaten by prison agents. A few days later, Hamdi fell into a coma. On September 1er 2022, he died. The death certificate mentions cardio-respiratory failure. An autopsy was carried out, but the report has not yet been released to the family.

According to information subsequently gathered by SANAD, Hamdi was placed in solitary confinement following an argument with the head of his prison cell. There, he was allegedly beaten unconscious by two officers.

The investigation was opened on the basis of article 31 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows the public prosecutor to ask the examining magistrate to investigate "against unknown persons", pending the possible identification of suspects. The consequence is often, as in the present case, that the investigating judge denies the parents of the deceased the right to bring a civil action and to follow the progress of the investigation. In some cases, parents remain uninformed for years about the causes and circumstances of their child's death.