A/HRC/4/33/Add.3
page 22
(b)
The highest authorities, particularly those responsible for law enforcement
activities, declare unambiguously that the culture of impunity must end and that torture
and ill-treatment by public officials will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted. The
message should be spread that torture is an extremely serious crime which will be punished
with severe (long-term) prison sentences;
(c)
The crime of torture be defined as a matter of priority in accordance with
article 1 of the Convention against Torture, with penalties commensurate with the gravity
of torture;
(d)
The special court system within the security services - above all, police and
intelligence courts - be abolished, and their jurisdiction be transferred to the ordinary
independent public prosecutors and criminal courts;
(e)
An effective and independent complaints system for torture and abuse
leading to criminal investigations be established;
Safeguards
(f)
The right to legal counsel be legally guaranteed from the moment of arrest;
(g)
The power to order or approve arrest and supervision of the police and
detention facilities of the prosecutors be transferred to independent courts;
(h)
All detainees be effectively guaranteed the ability to challenge the lawfulness
of the detention before an independent court, e.g. through habeas corpus proceedings;
(i)
Judges and prosecutors routinely ask persons brought from police custody
how they have been treated and, even in the absence of a formal complaint from the
defendant, order an independent medical examination in accordance with the Istanbul
Protocol;
(j)
Those legally arrested should not be held in facilities under the control of
their interrogators or investigators for more than the time required by law to obtain a
judicial warrant of pretrial detention, which should not exceed 48 hours. After this period
they should be transferred to a pretrial facility under a different authority, where no
further unsupervised contact with the interrogators or investigators should be permitted;
(k)
The maintenance of custody registers be scrupulously ensured, including
recording of the time and place of arrest, the identity of the personnel, the actual place of
detention, the state of health upon arrival of the person at the detention centre, the time at
which the family and a lawyer were contacted and visited the detainee, and information on
compulsory medical examinations upon being brought to a detention centre and upon
transfer;
(l)
Confessions made by persons in custody without the presence of a lawyer
and that are not confirmed before a judge shall not be admissible as evidence against the
persons who made the confession. Serious consideration should be given to video and
audio taping of interrogations, including of all persons present;
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