CAT/OP/KAZ/1 without any explanation. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that State-provided lawyers generally do not visit their clients in pretrial detention facilities. Even defence lawyers and public defenders reportedly are sometimes not informed of the time, date and location of hearings on prolongation of detention. The Code of Criminal Procedure simply states, in article 152, that the lawyer or public defender may participate, but does not make his or her participation mandatory. The prosecutor, on the other hand, must participate, in accordance with the same article. In some cases, the detainees were unaware of the reasons for their initial detention, or for the prolongation of their detention by the court. They were also unaware of the time frame of their detention, the progress in their investigation or the identity of their lawyer or the investigator. 55. The Subcommittee recommends that detainees be brought before a judge as soon as possible, without waiting for the 72 hours authorized by law to lapse, and to reduce that period from 72 to 48 hours as an additional safeguard against torture and ill-treatment.6 It also recommends that all hearings regarding initial detention and its prolongation be conducted in the presence of the detained persons and their lawyers. During the hearings, judges should inquire into the well-being of detainees and, where there is suspicion of torture, order an immediate and effective investigation. Detained persons must be able to challenge their detention at any time, 7 at reasonable time intervals. The procedure for the initial detention and its periodic review and prolongation should be under judicial supervision and beyond the control of investigators, prosecutors and detaining authorities. C. Detention and investigation under one ministry and frequent transfers between places of deprivation of liberty 56. While Kazakhstan had transferred pretrial detention facilities and prison colonies from the Ministry of the Interior to the Ministry of Justice as of 2004, the State party brought all detention facilities back under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2011. The temporary detention facilities attached to district police stations under the Ministry of the Interior are intended for initial detention of no more than 72 hours, but in many cases are used for stays of up to 30 days while investigations are ongoing. 8 Pretrial detention facilities and temporary detention facilities are governed by the same law. 57. The delegation observed that detainees under investigation are frequently, sometimes daily, transferred from pretrial detention facilities to police stations or temporary detention facilities and back. When, owing to the distance, it is impossible to transfer the prisoner from a pretrial detention facility to a police station directly, prisoners are transferred first to a temporary detention facility, with the aim of further transfer to a police station. 58. There appears not to be a requirement for the investigator to explain why a suspect must be taken out of a pretrial detention facility, and often it is done for interrogation only. Registers kept at pretrial detention facilities, while recording the time of transfer, do not show where suspects are taken, and there seem to be no registers in police stations to record who has been brought in for an investigation. In addition, while there are time limits on detention in police stations (three hours) and the duration of interrogations (two sessions of four hours each, separated by a one-hour break), there do not appear to be limits on the time spent outside the pretrial detention facility; several suspects had been taken out at 10 a.m. and were not back when the delegation left at 7.30 p.m. This is of particular concern given the generally inadequate conditions in cells at police stations, where suspects wait: only 6 7 8 10 The Human Rights Committee, in paragraph 33 of its general comment No. 35 (2014) on liberty and security of person, states that longer detention in the custody of law enforcement officials without judicial control unnecessarily increases the risk of ill-treatment. See International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 9 (4). Law No. 353-I on the procedure for and conditions of detention of persons in special institutions that enforce temporary isolation from society, art. 12.