Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

The Sandwell Metropolitan Council formed a new tax plan pursuant to a national change in tax law. Previously, low-income persons would be given financial assistance to pay council taxes, whereas under the new plan, individuals’ tax liability was lowered based on financial status. The relevant statute stated that local authorities would create locally-tailored plans to determine tax liability by creating classes based on income, capital, and number of dependents.

Rusi Kosev Stanev was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1975 and declared unfit to work in 1990. In 2000, following a request from his stepmother and half-sister, a court declared him partially legally incapacitated without notifying him. Since his relatives declined guardianship, a municipal council officer was appointed his guardian. Without informing Stanev, the guardian requested that he be placed in a social care home for 'people with mental disorders'.

In 2012, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (Commission) accepted this communication as admissible for consideration. The case was filed on behalf of three prominent human rights defenders working in Sudan, Monim Elgak, Amir Suliman and the late Osman Hummaida, who were targeted for their alleged cooperation with the ICC in its investigation of several Sudanese political leaders. The three men were arrested by Sudan’s National and Intelligence Services (NISS), tortured and maltreated for three days.