E/CN.4/2000/9 page 32 allegedly beat many of the prisoners, causing them welts, lacerations, bruising and broken bones. This unit had allegedly raided the jail at night on a weekly basis, masked and armed, firing shots into the cells, destroying personal effects, ordering prisoners to strip and inflicting torture such as "Russian roulette", in which a revolver allegedly containing a single bullet is fired at a prisoner's head, and the "telephone call", in which a prisoners ears are reportedly struck between the police officer's hands, causing intense pain. After complaints by human rights groups, the Forensice Medical Institute reportedly recorded the injuries of around 130 prisoners and a police investigation was ordered. 140. On 12 January 1997, 80 women prisoners were allegedly beaten by male civil and military police officers during a protest in the Santa Rosa de Viterbo prison in Altinópolis, São Paolo, after an inmate was allegedly refused permission to attend her grandson's funeral. One woman suffered a miscarriage as a result of the beatings, another sustained a broken arm and another required 10 stitches to her head. On 11 March 1997, women in the Women's Penitentiary in São Paolo were also allegedly beaten by male prison officers. At least 15 were reported to have suffered injuries. 141. The Special Rapporteur received information according to which the São Paulo state police ombudsman received 696 complaints from January to September 1998 alleging torture, abuse or mistreatment. The ombudsman reportedly stated that that number represented only a fraction of such acts that were actually committed. In June 1998, an inquiry into the allegedly systematic torture of prisoners in January and February 1998 was reportedly instigated by the civil police in São Paulo. The findings of the inquiry were that, of a total of 350 prisoners held in a detention facility, 107 persons showed evidence of systematic beatings resulting in broken arms, legs, fingers and jaws. The civil police reportedly dismissed four officers as a result of the investigation. 142. It is also reported that on 15 June 1998, the Federal District dismissed a police officer and charged him with torture for beating a prisoner who had been detained for a traffic violation. This was reportedly the first case brought under 1997 federal legislation prohibiting torture. 143. The Special Rapporteur also transmitted the following individual cases. 144. Octavio dos Santos Filho reportedly died in a police lock-up in São Paulo on 13 October 1997. Nineteen fellow inmates claim that police and prison officers repeatedly beat him and slammed his head against the metal bars and walls of the cell. Over the course of several days, police officers took him on more than one occasion to the nearest hospital to have his injuries treated, and allegedly further ill-treated him en route. After a severe beating on 9 October, he was left alone, pleading for medical help. When police finally took him to the health post, four days later, he was already dead. 145. Rosana Lage Ligero and Marilu Josu Silva Barbosa, two women who had been living openly as a lesbian couple, were reportedly arrested in June 1996, after an alleged partial investigation, by the local police in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco. Although the police claimed to have a judicial order for the women's arrest, such an order was only issued two days after the women had entered police custody. While in custody, the two women were allegedly beaten with a rubber whip and threatened with rape. They were also verbally abused for their lesbianism. The two police officers conducting the interrogation forced