- 33 The ad hoc visits a) first visit 4. In the report drawn up following its first visit to Turkey in 1990, the CPT reached the conclusion that torture and other forms of severe ill-treatment were important characteristics of police custody in that country. More specifically, in the light of all the information gathered concerning the Anti-Terror Departments of the Ankara and Diyarbakır Police, the CPT concluded that detectives in those departments frequently resorted to torture and/or other forms of severe ill-treatment, both physical and psychological, when holding and questioning suspects. A variety of elements led the Committee to those conclusions. 5. In the first place, the CPT was struck by the extremely large number of allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment by the police received in the course of the visit, the wide range of persons making those allegations, and their consistency as regards the particular types of torture and ill-treatment said to have been inflicted. It should be noted that the allegations emanated from persons suspected or convicted of offences under anti-terrorism provisions and from persons suspected or convicted of ordinary criminal offences. As regards the latter, the number of allegations was especially high among persons detained for drug-related offences, offences against property (burglary, robbery, theft) and sex offences. Concerning the types of illtreatment involved, the following forms were alleged time and time again: suspension by the arms; suspension by the wrists, which were fastened behind the victim (so-called "palestinian hanging", a technique apparently employed in particular in anti-terror departments); electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body (including the genitals); squeezing of the testicles; beating of the soles of the feet ("falaka"); hosing with pressurised cold water; incarceration for lengthy periods in very small, dark and unventilated cells; threats of torture or other forms of serious ill-treatment to the person detained or against others; severe psychological humiliation. 6. The CPT's medical findings must also be emphasised. Indeed, a considerable number of persons examined by doctors in the CPT's visiting delegation displayed physical marks or conditions consistent with their allegations of torture or ill-treatment by the police. The delegation also met several persons in police custody who, while not stating openly that they had been ill-treated, displayed clear medical signs consistent with very recent torture or other severe ill-treatment of both a physical and psychological nature. Some specific cases were described in the Committee's report.