E/CN.4/1999/61/Add.1 page 26 Parliament from the region, who appealed to the President, the prosecutor opened a case against the police on 4 June 1996, six months after receiving the allegations. 93. While the trials proceeded against the students in the State Security Court and in the Heavy Penal Court, the trial of the police began in the Manisa Heavy Penal Court. In the cases before the Heavy Penal Court, the students were acquitted when the Court found that there was no conclusive evidence other than the police statements that the defendants had committed the offences. The State Security Court, however, relied upon the allegedly coerced statements and reached a conviction before the trial against the police had been concluded. 94. During the court proceedings, the police were allowed to remain on duty. Further, the court did not require the police officers to attend the hearings in the trial against them and accepted the argument that identification of the police accused should be by photographs rather than in person, on the basis that the identity of police officers involved in anti-terror work should be protected. On 11 March 1998, the police officers were acquitted owing to insufficient medical evidence of torture. 95. Both the conviction of the students and the acquittal of the police were appealed. The appeal of the conviction of the students is still pending, but in October 1998 the Court of Appeal overturned the verdict of acquittal of the police, noting that the students had been subjected to physical and psychological violence. There must now be a retrial of the police in the Court of First Instance. 96. There is also inadequate discipline of the police and jandarma. A police officer or jandarma rarely receives any form of punishment. Indeed, non-governmental organizations have provided examples of officers who, having been found guilty of torture or ill-treatment, have actually been promoted. It is also extremely rare for an officer to be placed on suspension while an investigation is being conducted, and an officer is almost never placed on remand when an indictment is brought by the public prosecutor. Once again, statistics provided to the Special Rapporteur demonstrate how rarely police officers or jandarma are disciplined. 97. For example, Lt. General Çetin HaspiÕiren of the Jandarma provided the Special Rapporteur with the following national statistics for the past five years on jandarma investigated internally for the crime of torture or ill-treatment: for torture, 4 non-commissioned officers and 7 expert sergeants are currently being prosecuted administratively; for ill-treatment, 8 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers and 42 expert sergeants are being prosecuted administratively. 98. The Acting Director-General of Security provided the following statistics for police officers. During the first 10 months of 1998, the contracts of 124 police officers were terminated as a result of administrative penalties, but only 20 cases involved abuse of authority (not all of these 20 cases necessarily involved acts of torture or ill-treatment); 319 officers were fined or their salaries were reduced; 179 received a suspension of promotion; and 98 received a short-term suspension of promotion.