(e)Reports prepared by Amnesty International, the Association for the Prevention of Torture, the World Organization against Torture and International Prison Watch. Moreover, it should be pointed out that, in 1990, the Government of Spain broke its agreement with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which permitted ICRC to visit political detainees in Spain, particularly many Basque prisoners. In spite of the many requests made to the Spanish authorities, those authorities have not yet re-established the agreement. 3.5.14 Moreover, reliable reports from international human rights bodies indicate that the ill treatment regularly inflicted by Spanish officers, intentionally and with professionalism, in order to obtain confessions or information or to cause terror, are serious enough to be classified as torture under article 1 of the Convention against Torture and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. 3.5.15 The impunity enjoyed by torturers on the part of the Spanish authorities is an additional risk factor. Indeed, such impunity encourages perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment to persist in their acts of violence. Often, victims’ complaints are filed away and never followed up; the proceedings are very long; sentencing of torturers is very rare; when sentences are handed down by Spanish courts, torturers are most often pardoned by the authorities; certain torturers have even been promoted. The fact that officers who practise torture are not punished creates a feeling of impunity, which encourages the persistence of the practice of torture. 3.5.16 As the Committee against Torture has already noted, statements obtained as a result of torture are accepted by Spanish courts, particularly the National High Court, which is a special court that deals with crimes and acts of terrorism. Moreover, the judgements handed down by the National High Court are not subject to appeal, in contravention of article 14, paragraph 5, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; only an appeal for cassation is possible before the Supreme Court, which refuses to re-examine the lawfulness of the evidence accepted in first instance by the National High Court. 3.5.17 Finally, concerning the situation in Spain, it should be recalled the Committee against Torture stated in its most recent concluding observationsm that, pursuant to article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention, “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether … internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”. Thus, the situation of acute conflict in the Basque area of the country cannot be invoked to justify the practice of torture by the Spanish security forces and the use by Spanish courts of evidence obtained as a result of torture. The State party’s observations 4.1The State party submitted its views in a note verbale dated 29 April 2002. 4.2The State party notes that the complainant had been arrested for possession of weapons and was suspected of being a member of ETA. The complainant was sentenced by a judgement of the Paris Correctional Court to two and a half years’ imprisonment for offences involving the transport and possession of weapons, the holding of false administrative documents and participation in a conspiracy with a view to preparing an act of terrorism. 4.3The first request to extradite the complainant, dated 15 September 1997,n was based on her membership of ETA and on the fact that she had created the infrastructure of the “Madrid Commando”, which carried out attacks in the Spanish capital. For this reason, the complainant had been put in detention pending extradition in Fresnes prison on 21 October 1997. By a judgement of 18 March 1998, the indictment division of the Paris Court of Appeal issued a ruling in favour of her extradition and the Court of Cassation rejected her appeal against that ruling on 23 June 1998. 4.4The complainant was the subject of an additional extradition request on 10 March 1999. While the examination of that additional request was in progress and criminal proceedings were being undertaken by the French courts, the authorities of the State party decided not to proceed directly with the first extradition. According to the indictment and the evidence produced by the Spanish authorities in support of that additional extradition request: “[A] complaint was brought against P.E., as a member of the terrorist organization ETA, for having, together with other members of that organization, in Madrid, sought information on, monitored and verified the route taken by a van belonging to the general staff of the Spanish air force, with the aim of carrying out an act of violence. On 30 November 1993, an Opel vehicle had been stolen and its number plates had been changed. The person whose extradition is sought, together with her accomplices, constructed an explosive device consisting of two ‘casseroles’, each containing an explosive charge of approximately 45 kilos. On 24 January 1994, two of her accomplices drove the car bomb to the intersection of the Paseo of La Ermita and Avenida del Manzanares in Madrid. On 25 January 1994, at approximately 0800 hours, as the military van passed by, Angel Azurmendi Penagarikano activated the device without managing to explode it. He then fled together with Arri Pascual d’Alvaro … . Several moments later, the police attempted to carry out a controlled explosion. They failed, and the device exploded, injuring 19 persons and causing serious damage to buildings and parked vehicles.” 4.5Following the additional request, the complainant was placed in detention pending extradition on 15 June 1999. After ordering additional information with a view to verifying whether part of the accusation had not been subject to a statute of limitations, on 21 June 2000 the indictment division ruled in favour of extradition for acts qualified by the requesting State as attempted terrorist murder, after having found that the statute of limitations for prosecution had expired under French law. 4.6The complainant requested her release on 21 October 1997. The request was granted by the indictment division on 22 March 2000. In the context of the additional extradition request, the complainant also requested her release on 4 September 2000. The request was granted on 18 October 2000, but accompanied by a measure that placed the complainant under judicial supervision. 4.7In those circumstances, the Prime Minister granted extradition on the basis of the first extradition request and the additional request, in a decree dated 29 September 2000. The complainant was handed over to the Spanish authorities on the day on which the Council of State took its decision to reject her appeal against the decree, on 7 November 2001.