2.4While in custody, Mikel Azurmendi is reported to have made two statements under duress to the Civil Guard on 23 and 24 March 1998. In these statements, which are said to contain many contradictions and implausibilities, the complainant was implicated, with some 30 others, as a member of the ETA “Madrid Commando” and accused of carrying out, together with others, surveillance and checks on the route taken in Madrid by a van belonging to the general staff of the Spanish air force, with the aim of carrying out an act of violence, and of participating, together with others, in the preparation of an explosive device placed on board a vehicle that was used by other members of the commando in an attempted act of violence on 25 January 1994. The complainant nevertheless maintains that she had long since left Madrid at the time of the events. 2.5Concerning the circumstances in which these statements were made, the complainant produces an excerpt from Mr. Azurmendi’s testimony: “I am writing this letter to you to denounce the treatment inflicted by the Spanish security forces, more specifically the Civil Guard, at the time of my arrest [in Seville], and during the transfer to the Madrid station and my stay there. Concerning my arrest, it occurred on José Laquillo Street, No. 5, first floor, door B. They immobilized me and handcuffed me, they didn’t stop rubbing my nose in the dirt, they beat me and continuously threatened me. After having read me my rights, a person [a prison inspection judge] ordered them to change my handcuffs. They did so in front of him and just after taking me down to the car, they put other handcuffs on me, tightening them as much as possible, hurting my wrists and causing injuries which are still visible. They only took them off once we arrived at the police cells. Apart from the pain caused by the handcuffs, they beat me on the head and the ribs, and squeezed my testicles; they pretended to fire a gun, pressing the barrel against my head and firing several times. They beat me to the point of causing a sprained ankle. All that happened during the journey from Seville to Madrid. Once we arrived in Madrid, they made me walk, but my leg was no longer working and every time I tried, I fell down. They continued to beat me because of that, forcing me to try again each time I was on the ground, until they saw that I could no longer walk and they led me to the cells. There they told me they were leaving me for a moment so that my blood circulation could return to normal. “A little later, they came and forced me to get up, still with my eyes blindfolded. From then on, they began to beat my ankle, slapped me, hit me on the nape of the neck and made all kinds of threats. After a time, I can’t say how many hours, they took me to casualty to have my ankle injury examined. Once I was there, I was diagnosed with a sprain, they put a bandage on me and advised me to put ice on it to relieve the pain and keep my foot raised. “When the Civil Guards took me back to the Civil Guard station, they beat me again, causing a further injury, and pushed me and hit me so much on the injured foot that they broke my big toe. “They subjected me to a long session of questioning, including beatings, pulling out tufts of my beard and using an object which gave me electric shocks in the penis, the stomach and the chest. And as if that wasn’t enough, they used another method - the plastic bag. This involved putting a plastic bag over my head, tightening it round my neck and suffocating me. They did this several times, together with the electric shocks. Each time I passed out, they left me alone for a while to recover, then they started again. “After all of that, they took me to casualty, a different place from before, because the journey was much shorter, I guessed it must be close to the police station. During the journey, they constantly threatened me, telling me: ‘You don’t know where we are taking you’, ‘You’re going to the hills to dig your own grave … .’ “When we got back, they continued to threaten me. This time, they mentioned my sister: if I didn’t talk, they would go and fetch her and she would pay because of me - it was up to me … . “Then they started to make threats against my partner Maite Pedrosa (arrested at the same time as I was), that they were going to rape her, that she was in a very bad way, … with threats like: ‘we are filling the bath’. And that if I continued to show off (sic), they would give me the bath treatment. The beatings never stopped during the time I spent in the police station, especially blows to my sprained ankle, and beatings and slaps to the head. “At the end, they told me that they were taking me to the National High Court to make a statement and that in the afternoon I would have to go back with them to look at some photos, and that the treatment would therefore depend on what I said in my statement in court. “During almost all the time I was being questioned, I was blindfolded, and when I wasn’t, they forced me to lower my head, even though I was able to see the head of one of them twice and I could recognize him. Alcalá de Henares prison, 7 April 1998.” 2.6At the end of his period in custody, on 25 March 1998, Mr. Azurmendi appeared before examining magistrate No. 6 of the National High Court in Madrid. He lodged a complaint relating to the torture to which he had been subjected during his time in custody and retracted his earlier statements. This complaint is still being investigated. 2.7While in Madrid prison, Mr. Azurmendi was also examined by the prison medical services, and a court-ordered medical report was delivered on 18 October 1998. These medical reports and the testimony of a number of detainees arrested on the same day as Mr. Azurmendi corroborate his allegations of torture and ill-treatment. 2.8After the complainant had been implicated in the statements made by Mr. Azurmendi on 23 and 24 March 1998, the Spanish procurator’s office stipulated that proceedings against the complainant would be subject to the evidence. As the results were negative, Mr. Ismael Moreno Chamaro, central examining magistrate No. 2 attached to the National High Court in Madrid, issued an order on 29 October 1998 that the complainant should be imprisoned and committed for trial. On that basis, the judge issued a request for the extradition of the complainant on 22 December 1998. By means of a note verbale dated 10 March 1999, the Government of Spain, through its embassy, requested the French authorities to extradite the complainant. On 15 June 1999, she was placed in detention in Fresnes prison pending extradition. The request for extradition was heard in public session on 24 May 2000 by