E/CN.4/2004/56/Add.2 page 10 concerned with detainees arrested and held incommunicado as suspected members or supporters of ETA. According to testimonies provided to the Special Rapporteur during the mission, a certain pattern had emerged. Suspects were arrested and transferred to Madrid. During transfer they were allegedly handcuffed, hooded, forced to keep their head between their knees and beaten. They were reportedly held incommunicado by the police or the Civil Guard for three to five days, when they were reportedly subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Former detainees described the following methods of treatment during incommunicado detention: hooding, forced nudity, physical exercise, being forced to stand for prolonged periods facing the wall, sleep deprivation, disorientation, the “bolsa” (asphyxiation with a plastic bag), sexual humiliation, threatened rape, and threats of execution. 28. During the visit the Special Rapporteur provided the Government with a selection of alleged recent cases that reportedly occurred between March 2002 and February 2003. The Government responded by letter dated 17 November 2003; a summary of the Government’s response can be found in document E/CN.4/2003/56/Add.1. 29. The Special Rapporteur has observed a reluctance to discuss the occurrence and extent of the practice of torture in Spain as torture has become a highly politically charged issue. The prevailing opinion among authorities interviewed by the Special Rapporteur was that reports of torture by persons detained in connection with counter-terrorism measures were false and made systematically as part of the ETA strategy to undermine the Spanish criminal justice system. The Government provided the Special Rapporteur with a document reportedly found in the residence of members of the “ARABA/98” terrorist squad arrested on 19 March 1998. The document is said to provide instructions on how to claim that one was tortured when in detention. The decree of silence that surrounds the subject and the denial by authorities without investigating the allegations of torture has made it particularly difficult to provide the necessary monitoring of protection and guarantees. 30. During the mission the Special Rapporteur learned that some persons or NGOs that had filed complaints of torture were subsequently accused of supporting ETA and terrorism. The following case involving a Basque newspaper provides an illustration of the tensions between counter-terrorism measures and the duty to prevent, prohibit and combat torture. 31. On 20 February 2003 a judge of the Audiencia Nacional (or National High Court) ordered the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria closed and the arrest of 10 persons associated with it. All were reportedly held incommunicado under the anti-terrorist legislation and taken to the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid. The judge justified the closure and arrests in a decision in which he stated that the company that published the newspaper was financed and directed by ETA. Founded in 1990, the newspaper allegedly contributed to a Basque-language information structure which facilitated the dissemination of “terrorist” ideology. After being released from detention in connection with the closure of Egunkaria, Martxelo Otamendi Egiguren, one of the directors, claimed that he and others had been subjected to torture while being held incommunicado. In March 2003 the Government lodged a complaint with the Audiencia Nacional, in which it accused Martxelo Otamendi Egiguren and three other newspaper directors of “collaborating with an armed band” by making torture claims as part of an ETA-inspired strategy to undermine democratic institutions.