THEMATIC REPORT 2017 REDRESS AND REPARATIONS expertise, meaning that no psychological examination of the victim is carried out. In addition to the problems associated with the quality of the medical evidence documenting the allegations of torture, the complaint about torture is filed at the police station, placing the victim at risk of intimidation or harassment and leaving room for the complaint to be altered or simply not recorded. Case Study Medico-legal reports corroborate torture used to extract information CCTI currently supports four victims involved in legal proceedings in which they were able to prove that statements they made, accusing a fifth person - “Carlos” - of organised crime, were obtained through torture. The victims’ allegations were proven by submitting medico-legal reports, carried out by members of the Red Nacional de Peritos Independientes en México (National Network of Independent Experts in Mexico), according to the standards in the Istanbul Protocol. The medicolegal reports corroborated the allegations of the four victims. On 8 September 2016, the court handed down its judgement, in which full probative value was given to the independent medico-legal reports. As a result of this evidence, the court excluded the victims’ confessions obtained as a result of torture. “Carlos” was acquitted and his immediate release from detention was ordered. However, the trial of the four victims is still pending, demonstrating the lengthy judicial process and the impunity that persists in Mexico. It has taken seven years to prove that the allegations against Carlos were false. In addition, two years have passed since the court accepted the allegations that the four victims were tortured, yet these four individuals are still deprived of their liberty. There is a low perpetrator conviction rate compared with complaints filed There are very few criminal convictions of perpetrators compared to the number of complaints about torture or ill-treatment which are filed. In the Philippines, there is only one known case where the perpetrator was convicted in 2016, in accordance with the Anti-Torture Act. However, the defendant filed a plea bargain and was therefore convicted of a lesser offence. Another page 34