32 EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT (b) Application to the present case 90. The Court finds it appropriate primarily to examine the applicant’s allegation that, in violation of Article 6 of the Convention, the Belgian courts, in the context of the criminal proceedings against him, had admitted in evidence certain statements by third parties that had been obtained in Morocco using treatment prohibited by Article 3 of the Convention. 91. It would first observe that it has been established that the domestic courts refused to apply the exclusionary rule to statements of third parties obtained in Morocco by the Moroccan authorities in the course of criminal proceedings in that country, as can be seen from the reasoning of the Brussels Court of Appeal’s judgment of 19 January 2007 (see paragraphs 36 and 40 above). This has not been disputed by the Government. 92. It remains to be determined, in the circumstances of the case, whether the Moroccan judicial system afforded, at the material time, meaningful guarantees of an independent, impartial and serious examination of allegations of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, and, if not, whether there was a “real risk” that the impugned statements might have been obtained as a result of such means (see paragraph 88 above). 93. In the light of the plentiful information before it, the Court has cause to doubt that the Moroccan judicial system did afford such guarantees at the material time. It is at least apparent from that information that this was not the case at the time of the circumstances in question, in so far as the allegations concerned acts committed in the context of general counterterrorism measures, and, more specifically, in that of the investigations and proceedings that followed the Casablanca bombings of 16 May 2003. 94. The Court observes, in this connection, that in its report of 28 November 2005 (see paragraph 53 above) – to which the applicant referred before the Court, as before the domestic courts – Human Rights Watch explained that individuals tried in that context had been denied a fair hearing, that the courts refused, in particular, to order medical examinations of those who claimed to have been tortured, that it was not aware of any prosecution of officials suspected of torture, and that “[o]verall, the pattern of continuing abuses, criticized by various human rights organizations as well as by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, [CCPR/CO/82/MAR] show[ed] that security forces continue[d] to operate in a climate of impunity and disrespect for the law, and that the executive branch continue[d] to exercise considerable influence over the courts”. Similarly, the FIDH report of February 2004, to which the previous report referred (see paragraph 54 above), commented in particular on the hurried nature of the judicial investigation phase and the failure to comply 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 emphasised that the trial courts had systematically dismissed objections based on alleged problems at the police custody and