EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT 33 judicial investigation stages and that no application for a medical expert’s report for the purposes of substantiating ill-treatment allegations had been accepted. Amnesty International made the same observation in its report of 24 June 2004 (see paragraph 55 above) – mentioned in the above-cited report of Human Rights Watch. It reported, in particular, that the judicial authorities appeared to have repeatedly dismissed allegations of torture or ill-treatment, without ordering investigations or medical examinations. Amnesty International further observed that statements obtained by torture or ill-treatment were often used in court as evidence to obtain convictions, even though the accused generally retracted them in the courtroom. It added that during their trials many accused challenged, on the ground that it had been obtained by duress, evidence against them taken from statements made by others who had been arrested and detained on similar charges, and that their requests for confrontation with witnesses were denied by the courts on a systematic basis. 95. In the same vein, the United Nations Committee against Torture and the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in reports covering the relevant period (paragraph 50-51 above), referred to numerous allegations of ill-treatment imputed to agents of the State and expressed concern about the impunity that they enjoyed. The former also noted that there was no provision of criminal law prohibiting a statement obtained under torture from being invoked as evidence in any proceedings, whilst the latter was concerned that the independence of the judiciary was not fully guaranteed. 96. The Court concludes from the foregoing that, in order to seek the application of the exclusionary rule as regards statements taken in Morocco by the Moroccan authorities, it was sufficient for the applicant to demonstrate before the domestic court that there was a “real risk” that they had been obtained using torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. 97. In this connection, the Court notes that the applicant alleged before the domestic courts that the impugned statements emanated from individuals who were suspected of involvement in the Casablanca bombings of 16 May 2003, and who had been interrogated in Morocco in the context of the ensuing investigations and proceedings. He argued that the country had been harshly criticised by governmental and non-governmental organisations for acts of torture and ill-treatment inflicted systematically on individuals arrested after those events, referring in particular to the abovementioned report of Human Rights Watch. He explained that those who had given the statements in question had complained of being subjected to acts of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. He added that the Moroccan authorities had not carried out an investigation into those allegations. He further argued that the Moroccan proceedings had been conducted in a hurried manner. The Brussels Court of Appeal took the view, however, that by merely “citing in general terms” various reports of human rights organisations, the