A/HRC/4/40/Add.2 page 17 74. The psychosomatic state of any arrested or detained person must be certified by a document issued by public health centres and hospitals (in Guayaquil, by a forensic physician). The age of minors or the pregnancy of a woman detainee must be confirmed by the police doctor, the sole authority competent to verify such a status. The judge is unable to order a release without such documentation. Certificates issued by private doctors are not acceptable. A similar situation arises when persons accused of drug trafficking claim that they are only users. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act establishes that persons who are found with drugs shall not be prosecuted or detained if they are only regular users (art. 62). But that must be certified by a psychosomatic examination carried out by experts from the National Council for the Control of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (CONSEP), and the cost must be covered by the detainees. If they cannot afford it, they remain in detention. 75. Many persons are either unaware that they may invoke the constitutional right of habeas corpus to be brought before the local mayor, or they are unable to pay the fee of 1 United States dollar to do so. Invoking amparo to request a release once detention has been ordered is even more costly, and is too complicated to do without the assistance of a lawyer. 76. The Working Group reaffirms that, under articles 163, 272, 273 and 274 of the Constitution, judges and magistrates at all levels must refrain from applying legal standards that are at variance with the supreme law of the land. B. Failure to ensure proper application of the adversarial system and its effect on the right to defence of the most vulnerable 77. In many respects the Code of Criminal Procedure has not been applied appropriately. The changes introduced by the National Congress have generally distorted the Code’s principles and weakened its institutions, thus undermining the positive effect of its adoption. With the new functions, powers and possibilities vested in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the principle of equality of arms between the two parties in an adversarial trial renders it essential to strengthen the right to a defence at all stages of criminal trial proceedings. In the case of Ecuador, most detainees are unable to hire a private defender or to provide the funds required for one to mount an appropriate defence. Accordingly, a strong and well-funded legal aid system is required. 78. There is no such system in Ecuador. There are just 32 public defenders. Most of the detainees interviewed said that they had not benefited from the assistance of a defence counsel during the initial stages of the pretrial inquiry and the public prosecutor’s investigation, and that they had their first contact with an attorney during the preliminary hearing. 79. Detainees can be kept in police cells for months without ever being brought before a judge. Another serious problem noted by the Working Group is the common practice of delegating the tasks of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to the police, which is done without any supervision or oversight, and without meeting the requirements set by law. As a result, in practice, the investigation remains in the hands of the Judicial Police, which also includes the bodies dealing with forensics, criminology and ballistics, as well as those that produce technical reports and certificates and gather evidence. The Office of the Attorney-General points out, however, that a prosecutor is still in charge of the investigation.