A/HRC/43/49/Add.1 and denied educational or recreational activities, except for 10 minutes of exercise per day. At the time of the visit, there were seven people on death row. B. Inadequate legal and procedural safeguards 34. The Constitution contains important provisions such as article 15, which guarantees citizens access to justice and defence, and that decisions are made within a reasonable length of time. Furthermore, the Constitution states that citizens enjoy the right to freedom and security, and that no one may be deprived of his or her freedom in whole or in part except by law or by a court decision. 35. The Penal Code states that detention is the exception; however, in practice, it seems to be almost automatic. 36. The Special Rapporteur learned that, for the past five years, an amended Penal Code has been pending, which has not yet been resubmitted to the parliament. This must be a priority for the Ministry of Justice in order to ensure that legal procedures are respected, which is currently not the case in practice. 37. During his meeting with the Prosecutor’s Office both in Moroni and in Anjouan, the authorities explained to the Special Rapporteur the different provisions regarding detention. Before being brought before the court, suspects can be held for up to 48 hours in detention (24 hours x 2) for regular crimes. For terrorism charges, the maximum period of time is 10 days, which can be extended up to one month before the case is brought before the courts. 38. The national law requires judicial arrest warrants and prosecutorial approval to detain persons longer than 48 hours (24 hours x 2). However, there is no legal provision that provides detainees with access to a lawyer in the 48 hours before being brought before the court (court of first instance). Thus, this is a high-risk window of time for police abuse. This, compounded by the fact that many detainees whom the Special Rapporteur interviewed had been subjected to lengthy pretrial detention – beyond the maximum statutory limit of eight months (4 months x 2) as stipulated in the Penal Code – further increases the risk of ill-treatment. 39. In fact, the Special Rapporteur met with some detainees who had been held after pretrial detention orders had expired. These individuals had been effectively forgotten and neglected due to the poor state of the judicial administration. 1. Prolonged custody (gendarmerie and national police force) 40. Many of the detainees held in the gendarmerie station in Moroni and Anjouan said that they had been held in custody by the national police or gendarmerie for over a week with no access to a lawyer, well beyond the maximum duration of 48 hours to be brought before a judge, as mandated by national law. 41. The Special Rapporteur learned that, in the vast majority of cases, the police or gendarmerie obtain a confession while the detainee is in custody, as prosecutors rely heavily on confessions to secure a conviction. The prosecutor assured the Special Rapporteur that the accused was brought before the court or prosecutor to confirm if his or her confession was “voluntary”. Experience shows, however, that the effectiveness of such a practice for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment depends largely on whether victims can be confident that their allegations will be taken seriously and systematically investigated and prosecuted. 42. Several detainees claimed to have been held in prolonged detention without ever having seen a prosecutor, judge or lawyer, thus strongly suggesting the arbitrariness of their detention. This included four of the five detainees at the gendarmerie station in Anjouan, held under the authority of the pretrial judge for 42 days in an “annex” to Koki Prison, reportedly for their own protection due to their alleged crimes (rape and murder). None of them had seen a prosecutor, judge or lawyer. 43. The Special Rapporteur received information about alleged corruption by judges who detain suspects without a court hearing or any legal basis or take no action to order their release after the expiration of a detention order or the completion of a sentence. 6