(h)
Allegations that in many cases, even where so provided by law, access to a lawyer
is denied or delayed in practice to persons in police custody, and that defendants have to pay
back the costs of legal aid if their case is lost;
(i)
The number of persons who lost their legal status as citizens or “non-citizens” and
became “illegal” after having temporarily left the country.
D. Recommendations
101.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
(a)
Take all appropriate measures to prevent acts of ill-treatment by members of
the police and ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment are investigated promptly and
impartially;
(b)
Improve conditions in places of deprivation of liberty, especially police
stations and short-term detention isolators, and ensure that they conform to international
standards;
(c)
Guarantee that detainees in police custody have the right to contact their
families and have access to a medical doctor of their choice and to legal counsel from the
outset of their deprivation of liberty;
(d)
Take all appropriate steps to shorten the length of legal proceedings and the
current pre-trial detention period;
(e)
Introduce legally enforceable time limits for the detention of rejected
asylum-seekers who are under expulsion orders. In this respect, the State party is invited
to provide statistics, disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, country of origin and age, relating
to persons awaiting expulsion;
(f)
Continue to take measures to address overcrowding in prisons and other
places of detention;
(g)
Provide in the next periodic report detailed statistical data, disaggregated by
age, gender and country of origin, on complaints related to torture and other ill-treatment
allegedly committed by members of the police forces, as well as related investigations,
prosecutions, and penal and disciplinary sentences;
(h)
Ensure that the draft code of conduct for police interrogation (“Police Ethics
Code”) is speedily adopted;
(i)
Take measures to ensure that in all circumstances the crime of torture is
explicitly included among the crimes for which article 34 of the Criminal Law excludes the
defence of superior orders;
(j)
Continue to facilitate the integration and naturalization of “non-citizens”;
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