E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.3 page 7 poor, with the inmates handcuffed or chained when held in isolation cells. He also claimed that torture was commonly practised in prison, although he himself had never been a victim. 20. Valimareanu Eugen, also held in Craiova penitentiary at the time of the visit, was reportedly involved in a fight along with his brother in a bar in his village of Vulja, in which two persons died. He claims to have reported to the police station in Timisoara on 21 May 1998 and then to have been transferred back to Vulja in order to be interrogated. There he was allegedly beaten several times in order to make him confess that he had participated in the killing of the two aforementioned persons. He claims to have been rolled in a carpet and beaten with a wooden stick, the so-called rotissoire, two or three times a week for more than two hours until he became unconscious. He informed the Special Rapporteur that these beatings only stopped when he signed a statement admitting to the facts. He claims that no lawyer was present at the time he signed the statement. He was then transferred back to Timisoara. He alleges that his brother was subjected to the same treatment and, after three months of detention in police custody, made a statement implicating him, in response to promises that doing so would reduce his own sentence. Both were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Their appeals were rejected by the Pitesti Appeals Court and they are currently awaiting an appeal to the Supreme Court. At the time of the visit, both brothers were on hunger strike to protest the sentences. 21. Petrica Ailenei, who was being held at the Iasi penitentiary at the time of the visit, was arrested on 6 February 1999 in Iasi following a quarrel in a bar. He was allegedly beaten on the street and then taken back to the bar, where he was again beaten, punched and kicked on the upper part of his body, his legs and head by gendarmes and police officers, as well as the bartender. He was then taken to the municipal police station, where he refused to make a statement. In the basement of the police station, he was allegedly subjected to further beatings. At 10 p.m. he was transferred to the county police lock-up, but the officer-in-charge refused to detain him because he was covered in blood. He was thereafter taken to the hospital, where he received stitches on his temple. He reported that he also suffered a broken nose but, despite his complaints, the doctor did not examine the bruises on his legs and upper body. He also claims that the police refused to allow him to remain at the hospital, contrary to the doctor’s advice. He informed the Special Rapporteur that he was given no medical certificate following this hospital visit. On 9 February 1999, he was brought before a public prosecutor, who informed him that he had been charged with breach of public order. In the presence of an ex officio lawyer he signed a statement containing his version of the facts. He alleges that another statement was presented in court admitting to rape and theft. One week later, at his request, he was examined by the Forensic Institute, but he had not seen the report produced. On 30 March, the prosecutor refused to release him on bail, but on 5 April the arrest warrant was not prolonged. He informed the Special Rapporteur that SIRDO had filed a complaint on his behalf to the Military Prosecutor concerning the beatings by the police and gendarmes. 22. Florin Macovei, also interviewed at the Iasi penitentiary, was reportedly arrested with an accomplice on 20 June 1998 at the railway station in Bucharest for an alleged theft in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Both were reportedly taken to the General Directorate for the Railways in Bucharest, where they were allegedly detained and beaten for a day and a half without an arrest warrant. He claims that they were beaten over a period of eight days in order to extract a confession. According to Florin Macovei, he was handcuffed to a cell door and beaten with fists and truncheons, and he was put on the floor face down with a piece of wood on his back on