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incorporating a definition of torture that is consistent with article 1 of the Convention.
Furthermore, in the light of the Committee’s general comment No. 2 (2007) on the
implementation of article 2 by States parties, the Committee is of the view that
“serious discrepancies between the Convention’s definition and that incorporated into
domestic law create actual or potential loopholes for impunity”. The State party
should also ensure that the penalties provided in this regard are proportional to the
seriousness of the acts committed.
Absolute prohibition of torture
(8)
While taking note of article 6 of the Constitution, the Committee deeply regrets the
absence of any specific legal provision providing for an absolute ban on torture and illtreatment, which no exceptional circumstance of any kind, be it a state of war or the threat
of war, internal political instability or any other state of emergency, can justify. It likewise
regrets the absence of any provision regarding the non-applicability of the statute of
limitations to the crime of torture (art. 2).
The State party should:
(a)
Establish, in law, an absolute and specific prohibition against torture
and inhuman and degrading treatment;
(b)
Establish in law the non-applicability of the statute of limitations to the
crime of torture;
(c)
Clearly and publicly reaffirm the absolute, non-derogable and intangible
nature of the ban on torture.
Generalized practice of torture
(9)
The Committee is deeply concerned by credible reports of acts of torture and illtreatment practised in such places as facilities for the deprivation of liberty and especially
in gendarmeries and military detention camps. The Committee is particularly concerned by
credible reports provided in connection with the cases of the following persons:
Alhousseine Camara, tortured in October 2011, Ibrahima Bah and Sékouta Keita, tortured
in February 2012, Ibrahim Sow, tortured and deceased in February 2012, Aboubacar
Soumah, subjected to torture and deceased in August 2012, Ballah Condé, tortured and
deceased in December 2013, and Tafsir Sylla, tortured and deceased in February 2014. The
Committee is particularly disturbed by the fact that these acts were committed during
interrogations conducted by law enforcement officers while the victims were being held in
custody and in the course of preliminary investigations for the purpose of extorting
confessions (including by means of the “skewer technique”) (arts. 2, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 16).
The State party should:
(a)
Take immediate and effective steps to prevent and punish all acts of
torture. In this connection, it should conduct thorough, independent and impartial
investigations without delay into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, including
the cases of the victims mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and bring the
perpetrators of these acts to justice;
(b)
Train police officers and gendarmes in the absolute ban on torture and
in all provisions of the Convention.
The events in Conakry Stadium
(10) The Committee is extremely concerned by the events that took place on 28
September 2009 in Conakry Stadium, which the International Commission of Inquiry on
Guinea has qualified as crimes against humanity (S/2009/693, annex, para. 27). Despite the
establishment of a “pool of judges” tasked with investigating and prosecuting the
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