4.5 The Criminal Investigations Office continued its inquiries and found that a fourth person (G.W.) had come into the office where the complainant was being questioned. That person was an official from the Vienna city administration who testified that he had stayed in the office for no more than one or two minutes and that during this time there had been no signs of any ill-treatment of the complainant. This information was submitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 26 August 1996. 4.6 On 7 October 1996 the trial against the three police officers began at the Vienna Regional Criminal Court. The complainant and the accused police officers were questioned at length by the court in the presence of the public prosecutor, counsel for the defence and the complainant’s representative. A number of witnesses were also questioned, including G.W. who repeated that he had stayed in the office, where the complainant allegedly had been ill-treated, for a short period and had not witnessed any ill-treatment. 4.7 In view of the complainant’s denial that G.W. was the fourth person, the Criminal Investigations Office continued its inquiries parallel to the court proceedings. In this regard the complainant was requested, on 30 August 1996, to assist the officers in their efforts, but he replied that he would not answer any summons and did not make any statements when a photograph of G.W. was shown to him. 4.8 The three accused officers were acquitted for lack of evidence by judgement entered on 25 November 1996. The court relied in particular on the medical expert opinion, according to which the ill-treatment alleged by the complainant would have had further consequences which would have been noticed by the medical officer who examined the complainant immediately after the alleged incident. The expert also took the view that the complainant might have inflicted the injury upon himself. An appeal announced by the prosecutor’s office was withdrawn on 6 March 1997 and therefore the judgement became final. Subsequent to that, the disciplinary proceedings initiated against one of the three officers were discontinued, whereas another one was acquitted in such proceedings; no disciplinary proceedings were initiated against the third officer. 4.9 The State party claims that the complainant’s right under article 13 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to have his case promptly and impartially examined by the competent authorities was fully secured. On the same day the complainant made his allegations, the President of the Vienna Federal Police Directorate was informed and the Criminal Investigations Office started its investigations. The State party notes in this respect that the Criminal Investigations Office and the district police stations belong to different departments of the police and that these departments are independent of each other. 4.10 The fact that the investigation was carried out by the Criminal Investigations Office, which deals with only the more serious crimes, shows that the case was given prompt attention by the competent authorities. The delay between the beginning of investigations and the passing on of information to the Public Prosecutor’s Office was the shortest possible and the inquiries carried out afterwards were extensive. Comprehensive investigations were carried out following the complainant’s statement that a fourth person had been present during the alleged ill-treatment. This is said to 5