OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 29 98. The report also commented on the State Security Court, which it said was composed of legal qualified military officers, who did not pursue military careers and were not serving officers. The law on the independence of the judiciary did not apply but nor did they enjoy judicial immunity from prosecution or civil proceedings. Sessions of the court were frequently closed to the public but the defendant would be represented. 99. The report recognized that allegations of torture were difficult to verify because police and security officials frequently denied detainees timely access to lawyers. However, torture, though occasionally used by the police, was not institutionalized, and it remained an “individual action”; if detected, officers were subject to criminal sanctions. A measure of protection was provided to the accused in criminal proceedings by Article 63(3) of the CCP, which required an accused’s statement to be signed and fingerprinted by him. It also had to be verified by the Public Prosecutor and his clerk. If the accused refused to sign his reasons had to be recorded. Article 63(3) was a fundamental requirement, which, if not adhered to, invalidated the statement. A signature and, if the accused was illiterate, a fingerprint, were necessary to show that the statement was that of the accused. Contrary to Ms Refahi’s evidence to SIAC (see paragraph 104 below), there was no evidence that fingerprinting was a clear sign of a false confession. 100. For confessions to the Public Prosecutor, the burden of proof was on the defendant to show that it was not legal; the burden was reversed for confessions to the police. There was a corroboration requirement when the evidence of a co-accused was used against another co-accused. The report also analysed a series of Court of Cassation judgments where it had quashed State Security Court judgments because of improperly obtained confessions. It had also laid down rules as to when confessions would and would not be admitted; where someone had been detained for longer than the prescribed time limit, there was a rebuttable presumption that the confession was improperly obtained. 101. The report went on to examine the judgments that had been given in the applicant’s previous trials. For the Reform and Challenge case, the report noted that, in rejecting some of the defendant’s claims to have been tortured into giving confessions, the State Security Court had relied on the evidence of the coroner, who had stated that he found no injuries on the men. In the millennium conspiracy trial the State Security Court had found no evidence whatsoever to support claims of false confessions made by some of the defendants and, as the defendants’ lawyers had not referred them to the coroner for examination, there was no medical evidence to support their claims. The State Security Court had, however, heard from officers who were present when the confessions were given and who testified that there were no beatings of any sort. The State Security Court in its judgments had relied on the confessions (including reconstructions at the