E/CN.4/2004/56/Add.2 page 13 decision to extend the detention period”, and its recommendation that “persons held incommunicado be systematically brought before the competent judge - or, if the person is detained outside Madrid at the relevant time, before an examining judge of the district in which he is being held - prior to the taking of a decision on the issue of extending the detention period beyond 72 hours”.11 39. Non-governmental sources expressed concerns about the lack of guarantees for incommunicado detainees and in particular the lack of access to a lawyer and a doctor of their choice. A forensic doctor of the Audiencia Nacional may visit the detainee during incommunicado detention; however, it is reported that they are often not trusted by the detainees, their reports vary greatly in terms of detail, and the forms used are not standardized. 40. Although by law, the detainee should have access to the lawyer assigned to him/her at any time during the police and judicial proceedings, in practice the lawyer only appears when the detainee is about to make and sign the formal statement, and has no opportunity to confer with the detainee. The detainees are reportedly informed that a lawyer is present in the room and they are provided with the lawyer’s identification number, but they are unable to see them. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the reason the lawyer is not identified by name is for their security. The lawyer remains silent while the statement is being made, thereby effectively reducing his/her role to that of mere observer. Once the statement is signed the detainee is brought before an investigating judge of the Audiencia Nacional and sent to prison or released. At that stage, the detainee may file a torture complaint. 41. The Special Rapporteur received credible information that leads him to believe that, although torture or ill-treatment is not systematic in Spain, the system of detention as it is practised allows torture or ill-treatment to occur, in particular in regard to persons detained incommunicado in connection with terrorist-related activities. According to information received, torture or ill-treatment are most likely to occur during the initial period in police custody. Information from non-governmental sources indicates that torture or ill-treatment is used in particular to extract a statement from a detainee. The current, restricted implementation of legal safeguards appears to be inadequate. Detainees must have a right of access to a lawyer from the outset of detention, the lawyer must be present during the interrogation and the detainee must have the right to talk to the lawyer in private. 42. The Ombudswoman of the Basque Country provided the Special Rapporteur with information on interventions her Office had made with regard to the question of torture or ill-treatment. She stated that it did not receive information directly from persons detained incommunicado, but rather from their relatives or NGOs. The most common complaints received from relatives were about the way house searches were conducted; the failure to inform relatives after arrest about the whereabouts of the detainee or when they will be brought before a judge; ill-treatment in police custody, including threats, humiliation, insults, sleep deprivation, being forced to stand for long periods and questioning without legal counsel; and the conditions in which prisoners were transferred. NGOs commonly reported that detainees were subjected to continuous noise and light to prevent sleep, general threats and threats to harm relatives, exhausting physical exercises, being forced to stand, beatings to the head and humiliation. The third source of information was public complaints to the media. Complaints were also received