EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT 17 cables as hard as rope it was still less painful than the idea that they could go through with their threat to rape my sisters ... for 15 days in a row I endured the same torture and the same questions: my life, my commitments, my friends – 15 days after which I was taken to another place still handcuffed and blindfolded. There I remained, from Thursday evening to Monday morning, in a stinking dirty cell with three other inmates in the same state as me and guarded 24-hours a day by three shifts of 10 to 12 warders. It was only on the Monday that we were examined by the investigating judge and sent to Okacha prison in Casablanca.’” The FIDH further indicated that, according to its own findings, “acts of violence, including torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, committed against accused persons, together with breaches of the right to a fair trial, including defence rights ... [were] flagrant”. It noted in particular the hurried nature of the investigation phase and non-compliance with safeguards enshrined in Moroccan law, such as the right to have a lawyer and to see a doctor, before both the public prosecutor and the investigating judge. It observed in particular as follows: “... Apparently being bound by an immediate obligation to produce a result, investigating judges have clearly taken liberties with the provisions of Moroccan law: ‘the judicial investigation certainly took place in atrocious conditions, often after midnight and even at 3 or 4 in the morning’ said one lawyer. The accused would wait for hours in the police van, where they would occasionally be allowed to drink. As to the interrogation itself, it was based, according to a lawyer, on a questionnaire that was practically completed beforehand, and the accused had to be precise in answering. ‘Don’t talk to me about anything that’s not connected with the case’, a judge told an accused who was trying to give an explanation. The charges were sometimes supported only by a denunciation or a mention by a third-party or other accused person, usually following ill-treatment or torture. The files rarely contained documents proving possession of weapons or explosives or participation in prohibited associations. ... According to the lawyers ..., the reports drafted by the investigating judges during the preliminary investigation stage were based mainly or exclusively on the reports of the DST, and the judges did not allow them to be challenged, or obliged some of the accused to sign them without being able to read them first ... Neither the public prosecutor nor the investigating judge ordered a medical examination in any of the numerous sets of proceedings, which concerned, as has already been mentioned, hundreds of individuals. Such examinations would have constituted not only a safeguard for the accused, but also for the police officers accused of torture. Similarly, the lawyers found their requests for experts’ reports and for the summoning and appearance of witnesses systematically denied. ... Before [the trial courts], the judges systematically refused to take account of the documents that the defence wished to present, or to hear witnesses for the defence and arrange confrontations that were necessary for the establishment of the facts, basing their findings exclusively on unilateral accusations that remained unsupported by evidence. Systematically, the courts first deferred the calling of witnesses until the end of the proceedings, then decided, after they had finished, to join the lawyers’ requests to the merits, delivering verdicts without ultimately allowing such hearings, even though they were guaranteed by a number of Articles (319, 430, 464, etc.) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. ...