CAT/C/39/2 page 12 C. The Public Prosecutor’s Office 28. Preliminary investigations into alleged acts of torture are carried out by the civil police. Thereafter, public prosecutors (promotores) may decide whether to prosecute on the basis of the evidence provided by the police investigations. 29. Public prosecutors work within the State Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público), under the State Public Prosecutor General (Procurador Geral de Justiça). The institutional functions of the public prosecutor’s office, which are provided for in article 129 of the Constitution, include instituting public criminal action; ensuring effective respect of constitutional rights by Government branches and by services of public relevance, including by filing public civil action (ação civil pública) and taking the necessary measures to guarantee such rights; exercizing external control over police activities; and requesting investigation procedures and the initiation of police investigations, indicating the legal grounds of its procedural acts. 30. At the time of the visit, the question of whether the State Public Prosecutor’s Office should have the capacity to investigate and prosecute cases of torture, even where no police inquiry had been initiated or where a police inquiry had not been concluded or had been filed was still pending decision by the Federal Supreme Court. In this connection, prosecutors argued that, constitutionally, they have the power to initiate an independent criminal investigation, irrespective of whether a police investigation has taken place. D. The Public Defender’s Office 31. With respect to legal aid, article 5 of the Brazilian Constitution stipulates that the State shall provide free legal aid to all persons subject to a means test. In this connection, the Public Defender’s Office (Defensoria Pública) is the Constitutional entity expected to provide legal assistance to these persons.3 However, not all States have established a Public Defender’s Office. For instance, the State of São Paulo, which houses approximately 40 per cent of Brazil’s prison population, does not have a Public Defender’s Office. E. The crime of torture 32. Article 5 of the Constitution enshrines the right of an individual not to be submitted to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment. Furthermore, it provides that the practice of torture is not subject to bail, mercy or amnesty and that superiors, perpetrators and persons who are able to prevent such a crime but do not do so, even by omission, must be held accountable for the crime. 33. Article 1 of the 1997 Torture Law (Law No. 9,455 of 7 April 1997) defines the crime of torture as: 3 Article 134 of the Constitution.