In an effort to improve detention conditions and strengthen safeguards for people in police custody, the director of the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN), Abdellatif Hammouchi, issued a security note to the attention of the various security and police services, in particular the Wilayas, at regional and local level.
The note, signed by Abdellatif Hammouchi, contains clear directives and instructions aimed at improving the conditions of detention during police custody, guaranteeing the freedom of those detained during the preliminary phase of the investigation, as well as improving the security of places of detention in terms of cleanliness, ventilation and evacuation plans in the event of possible danger.
The director of the DGSN also stressed the importance of providing special facilities for the detention of minors separated from adults, as well as strengthening surveillance measures in all detention centers under police custody. He also prohibited the presence of any equipment that could pose a danger to the detainees or be used for purposes of repression against their freedoms.
Among the guarantees highlighted by the Director General of National Security is the need to strengthen training programs for the benefit of the agents responsible for guarding these places, as well as the need to provide them with a pocket booklet containing a code of conduct. for members of the police. This booklet should include the rights and freedoms of detainees, which they must carry during all work and custody sessions in places of detention.
Abdellatif Hammouchi also insisted on the importance of regular monitoring of places of detention under police custody by the local security authorities, the local mixed security committees, which include national security doctors, as well as those in charge of the regional and local security. He also stressed the need to improve and strengthen detention conditions and guarantee the safety of employees and detainees.
In the same context, Hammouchi stressed the need to put in place the necessary and appropriate provisions to allow persons with disabilities to access, on an equal basis with others, to all spaces and places of safety.
This new note is part of a series of similar notes issued recently by the Director General of National Security, which aim at the proper application of the legal guarantees granted to persons in conflict with the law, as well as the implementation of a battery of guarantees and additional formalities blocking any personal slippage affecting the rights and freedoms of persons whose freedom is restricted and at the stage of a preliminary investigation.
This note is also part of the DGSN’s desire to provide the appropriate groundwork to facilitate the work of the national mechanism for the prevention of torture, which is empowered by law to visit and monitor places of detention in view, in a way that supports the rights gains that our country has made.
It should be noted that the Director General of National Security, Abdellatif Hammouchi, had recently signed an institutional cooperation agreement with Amina Bouayach, President of the National Human Rights Council (CNDH), to strengthen the human rights dimension man in the security function, which stipulates in some of its clauses, the training of female and male police officers assigned to guard places of detention under police custody.