deficiencies in prison services, showing that he knows how to use the available complaint procedures, but that he has never submitted a complaint about torture or ill treatment. 4.4 The State party submits that the only complaints filed on behalf of Mr. Parot are two identical complaints filed by Mr. Parot’s wife in April and May 1991 and relating to rumours that prison personnel had tried to hire a prisoner to kill ETA members in prison. Similar complaints were filed by other family members of ETA prisoners. An investigation was opened, following which the judge of Tribunal No. 7 of Alcalá-de-Henares, on 9 March 1993, ordered the suspension of the proceedings, for lack of evidence. 4.5 The State party concludes that the communication is inadmissible, because it is not based on true facts, because it is not related to the Convention against Torture, and because the domestic remedies have not been exhausted. 5.1 In her comments (dated 24 March 1994) on the State party’s submission, the author submits that she has difficulty in finding precise information regarding the investigation ordered by an examining magistrate of the Tribunal of Alcalá-de-Henares and that the State party is in a better position to provide this information. She states that early in the afternoon of 28 May 1991, her brother was visited in the prison of Alcalá-de-Henares by a female examining magistrate (juez de guardia) of the Tribunal. According to the author, the magistrate refused to give her name and asked Mr. Parot whether he wished to maintain his complaints of torture. After he replied affirmatively, his complaint was written down that same afternoon and read to Mr. Parot, who then signed it, in the presence of a lawyer appointed by the magistrate. No copy of the written complaint was furnished to Mr. Parot. This is said to be in violation of Spanish law. 5.2 As to the State party’s contention that the medical reports did not show that Mr. Parot had been ill treated or tortured, the author replies that the torture inflicted upon her brother was not "medieval torture", but torture not leaving obvious traces on the body. She affirms that her brother did not denounce the ill treatment to the medical doctors who came to visit him, out of fear of retaliation by the Guardia Civil. The Committee’s admissibility decision: 6.1 During its twelfth session, the Committee considered the admissibility of the communication. It ascertained that the same matter had not been and was not being examined under another procedure of international investigation. It noted that the assertion that on 7 April 1990 Mr. Parot had complained about ill treatment and torture before the investigating magistrate had not been challenged. The Committee considered that, even if these attempts to engage available domestic remedies may not have complied with procedural formalities prescribed by law, they left no doubt as to Mr. Parot’s wish to have the allegations investigated. The Committee concluded that, in the circumstances, it was not barred from considering the communication. 6.2 Accordingly, the Committee decided on 26 April 1994, that the communication might raise issues under the Convention, especially with regard to the lack of investigation by the State party of Mr. Parot’s allegations. -64-