CAT/C/BHR/CO/2-3 rulings should be based on confessions obtained as a result of torture, which contravene article 15 of the Convention against Torture and the State party’s Constitution and Criminal Code; (d) Introduce a mandatory system of review of cases in which capital punishment has been handed down, with suspensive effect following a death penalty sentence in the first instance; (e) Bring to the attention of judges that investigations and a new trial of Mohammed Ramadhan and Hussain Ali Moosa will be needed if coerced confessions were taken into account as evidence during their previous trial, guarantee the two men effective assistance by legal counsel at all stages of the new judicial proceedings and ensure the strict confidentiality of all meetings with their lawyers. Fundamental legal safeguards 14. The Committee is concerned about: (a) Allegations that most persons deprived of their liberty do not enjoy all fundamental legal safeguards from the moment of their apprehension; (b) The fact that, while audiovisual equipment for recording interrogations of suspects and detainees has been installed in all police stations, at the General Department of Criminal Investigations and in interrogation rooms used by prosecutors, interrogations during which ill-treatment and torture are inflicted often occur in other parts of those facilities in order to avoid them being recorded (arts. 2, 11 and 16). 15. The State party should take effective measures to guarantee that all detained persons are afforded in practice all the fundamental legal safeguards from the outset of their deprivation of liberty, in accordance with international standards, including the rights to: (a) Be informed about the charges against them, both orally and in writing, in a language that they understand, and to sign a document confirming that they have understood the information provided to them; (b) Request and receive a medical examination by a qualified medical doctor within 24 hours of their arrival in a place of detention, and have access to an independent doctor upon their request; (c) Have access to a lawyer or legal aid from the time of their apprehension and be able to consult with their lawyer in private throughout the proceedings against them, in accordance with article 20 of the Constitution; (d) Notify a family member or any other person of their choice of their detention immediately after apprehension; (e) Have their detention recorded in a central register immediately after arrest, and for the register to be accessible to their lawyers, family members and other persons concerned by the case; (f) Be brought before a judge within 48 hours of their apprehension; (g) Be interrogated, in all cases and in all places of deprivation of liberty, exclusively in interrogation rooms equipped for that purpose so that video recordings can be made and reviewed to identify and investigate any torture and other breaches of national legislation, have the recordings made available to them and their lawyers, and have the recordings used as evidence in court. Forced confessions 16. Despite the existing national legislation, the Committee remains concerned at numerous reports of the continued widespread use of forced confessions as evidence in courts and at the absence of information of any cases in which officials have been prosecuted and punished for extracting confessions in violation of article 15 of the Convention. It is also concerned at the widespread acceptance by judges of forced 4