Rachid Mesli is a French Algerian human rights lawyer and activist, living in Geneva and acting as the Director of the Legal Department of Alkarama (Human rights organisation based in Geneva). In 1991, he became part of the defense lawyer team defending the case of the arrested leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front, Abbassi Madani and Ali Belhadj. On 31 July 1996, he was abducted at gunpoint from his car by four assailants who turned out to be members of the security forces. He was then detained secretly for over a week, repeatedly beaten and threatened with death, and eventually charged with belonging to a terrorist group. In July 1997, he was acquitted of this charge and instead convicted of having "encouraged terrorism", a charge that had not been brought against him in the trial and a