A/HRC/13/39/Add.4 Male detainee had been detained in Bata Prison since spring 2008. Prior to that, he had been kept in custody at the Central Police Station in Bata for two weeks. The first day, he was brought to the interrogation room in the basement of the building at 9 p. m. In this dark room, where only a red light was blinking, he was handcuffed and suspended upside down, wearing only his underpants, and beaten 54 times with a truncheon on the soles of his feet (phalaca) as well as on his head in order to extract a confession. He however did not confess to any crime. Thereafter he was held in a single cell for one week. No visits from outside the police were allowed but other detainees could come to see him. He reported that, since he had been in prison, his family visited him, but they could not bring him food since they had no money. He had been subjected to corporal punishment in summer 2008. He reported that his hands and arms were handcuffed around a column and he was beaten with a police truncheon 15 times on his buttocks. Male detainee was arrested in summer 2007 by the police in a small town and was taken to the police station where he was held in custody for two days. In the cell his hands were handcuffed behind his back and he was forced to lie on the floor. In this position, he was beaten repeatedly with a police truncheon and once with a cable by a Police Commissioner and an Inspector. He had scars on his body, and his eye was injured from the beatings with the cable. When he arrived at Bata Prison, his injuries were still visible, but the prison authorities did not say anything. He reported that, if detainees needed to see a doctor, they had to pay a certain amount of money to the prison staff. Male detainee was arrested in a small town in spring 2008 and was directly taken to Bata Prison, where he had since been imprisoned. He had been brought before a judge three times but had not been convicted of a crime so far. He said he had not been beaten or illtreated himself, but he said that there were cases of corporal punishment in Bata Prison, for example when a prisoner was caught drunk. According to him, the flogging and beating took place in the courtyard of the prison and was carried out by the prison chief with a stick, mostly on the soles, and lower legs and buttocks. He further reported that there was a rule that if the detainee moved away from the strokes, the beating would be extended to the entire body. Male detainee arrived in Bata Prison in late 2006. He had been picked up at his home four days earlier by soldiers, put into a car and brought to the gendarmerie in Bata. During the first night at the gendarmerie post he was taken to an empty office and beaten by three or more soldiers. The beatings continued for three successive nights. He said that the beating during the third night was less severe as he was already badly injured. The soldiers used an iron crow bar for the beating. On the fourth day, his family came to the gendarmerie post and requested that he be taken to the hospital. According to him, the family had to pay for the transfer. Two gendarmerie officers accompanied him to the hospital, where he was treated for about an hour. He said that his left leg was fractured above the ankle, with an exposed bone. He was x-rayed in the hospital - the wound was enlarged and disinfected, then bandaged without stitching. The scars from the wound on his left ankle were still visible. He also had marks and scars on his right ankle; on his back he had three bands of horizontal scars, which he said stemmed from the 2006 beating. From the hospital he was taken directly to the judge and then to Bata Prison. In Bata Prison he reported that he had been beaten with a rubber stick about one month earlier. From this beating he had marks on his left arm and on his back. He had not filed any complaints. According to the forensic expert, the medical evidence on his left and right leg and ankle, as well as on his back and left arm corroborated his account. Male detainee was arrested in the last week of September 2008 in relation to a case of robbery and taken to the gendarmerie in Bata, where he was detained for three weeks. He reported that he was beaten during the interrogation: he was taken to an office by a senior officer during the night and told to sit down with his hands cuffed behind his back. He had 35