CCPR/C/81/D/962/2001 Page 4 him; he was never brought before a judge; and he was not allowed access to a lawyer. He states that he was held with 20 others in a cockroach-ridden cell measuring roughly 5 metres by 3, with no sanitation, no windows and no mattresses. His food rations consisted of manioc leaves or stalks. Two showers a week were permitted and the soldiers occasionally put the author out in the yard as he could not move by himself. The author states that he eventually obtained some medicines when Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) visited the camp. 2.6 In late December 1998, the author’s brother-in-law, Mr. Mungala, managed to locate Mr. Mulezi through an army acquaintance, and paid him a brief visit. It was then that the author learned that, the day after his arrest, soldiers had searched his house and beaten up his wife. Commander Mortos had refused Mrs. Mulezi’s request to travel to the city of Bangui in the Central African Republic in order to receive medical attention, and she died three days later. 2.7 On 11 February 1999, when seeing what an appalling condition the author was in, a soldier took him to hospital on his own initiative, but the military police intervened, producing a summons from the Military Tribunal. In actual fact the author was immediately put back in detention in the military camp without being brought before a judge; the soldier who had helped him was given a month’s imprisonment. 2.8 On 25 May 1999, the author bribed some soldiers to take him to the harbour next to the military camp, and a boat owner agreed to help him to leave Mbandaka. The author then managed to escape from Africa to Switzerland. According to a medical certificate from the Geneva University Hospital, the author was hospitalized as soon as he arrived in Switzerland in December 1999, for physical and psychological sequelae of the violence he had been subjected to in his country of origin. After intensive medical care, the author has recovered partial mobility, but he requires further treatment if he is to regain his independence to any satisfactory degree. The complaint 3.1 The author claims that he and his wife are the victims of violations by the Democratic Republic of the Congo of articles 6, paragraph 1; 7; 9, paragraphs 1, 2, 4 and 5; 10, paragraph 1; 14, paragraph 3; and 15, paragraph 1, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 3.2 On the question of the exhaustion of domestic remedies, the author claims that such remedies were inaccessible and ineffective, insofar as (a) he was unable to apply to a court while he was arbitrarily detained and (b) he is alive only because he managed to escape from the Mbandaka military camp and flee to Switzerland. 3.3 Despite the request and reminders sent by the Committee to the State party asking for a reply to the author’s allegations (notes verbales of 8 January 2001, 17 October 2001 and 28 October 2003), the Committee has received no response.