8 Specific reference must be made here to false information published on the website of the radio station “COPE”, to the effect that the January 2007 ad hoc visit had been organised by the member of the CPT elected in respect of Spain. Nothing could be further from the truth, a fact which was brought to the attention of those responsible. The CPT deplores the fact that a suitable correction has never been published. 10. The main objective of the ad hoc visit to Turkey in December 2006 was to review the situation of involuntary patients in psychiatric hospitals, and in particular their living conditions and treatment (including electroconvulsive therapy ― ECT). The legal safeguards surrounding involuntary placement and their implementation in practice were also examined. In addition, and for the first time in Turkey, the delegation visited two social welfare institutions. 11. A second ad hoc visit to Turkey was organised in May 2007, the CPT returning to Imralı High-Security Closed Prison in order to examine once again the treatment of Abdullah Öcalan, who has now spent more than eight and a half years as that establishment’s sole inmate. The Committee’s delegation looked into what action had been taken to implement the recommendations made after earlier visits as regards the conditions of detention in the establishment, and reviewed the situation concerning access to Imralı island for the prisoner's family members and lawyers. The state of the prisoner’s health was also examined, having regard inter alia to recent allegations of intoxication by heavy metals. 12. CPT visiting delegations have in the main continued to receive a satisfactory level of cooperation from State authorities, both at national level and in places of deprivation of liberty. As regards more particularly the first visit to Kosovo, the Committee's delegation enjoyed very good cooperation from all the authorities concerned: UNMIK, the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, KFOR staff, and officials responsible for the day-to-day operation of the facilities visited. The information seminar on the CPT's activities held in Pristina on 14 and 15 December 2006 no doubt contributed to this positive situation. CPT: 17TH GENERAL REPORT 13. There are still isolated cases of attempts to conceal from CPT visiting delegations the true situation in places visited. One example during the last twelve months involved the rapid emptying of a psychiatric hospital ward (which was in a particularly bad state), followed by the pretence that it had not been in recent use. Acts of this kind will rarely succeed and, inevitably, leave a poor impression when they are discovered. 14. Moreover, as in previous years, there were on occasion clear indications that persons held in places visited had been warned not to make any complaints to the CPT's delegation. The Committee must reiterate that such action is entirely contrary to the principle of cooperation and hence totally unacceptable. It is equally unacceptable for detained persons who have been interviewed by a CPT delegation to be subsequently questioned about what the delegation had asked and what the persons concerned had replied. This is in flagrant contradiction with the principle of the privacy of the Committee's interviews with persons deprived of their liberty. The CPT will also not tolerate State officials taking photographs of persons at liberty who are met by the Committee during a visit. The CPT trusts that no visiting delegation will ever again have to intervene to stop such behaviour. To sum up, it must be made clear once again that any intimidatory or retaliatory action against a person before or after contact with a CPT delegation could result in the Committee exercising its power to issue a public statement. 15. The CPT also regrets to have to record that a considerable number of the countries visited over the last twelve months were found to have failed to implement recommendations on key issues made by the Committee after earlier visits. As the CPT’s President recently emphasised before the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee does not exist to simply carry out visits and maintain cordial relations with States; its purpose is to bring about necessary change with a view to strengthening protection against illtreatment. Only if the CPT’s dialogue with a State leads to the achievement of that purpose can one speak of effective cooperation.