E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2 page 46 should report such allegations to a police station and ask for a forensic examination to be carried out. An administrative procedure should then be opened by the corregedoria (see below), which would be responsible for informing the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It is alleged by NGOs and human rights lawyers that it usually takes a long time before the information reaches the latter and a criminal inquiry is opened. In that respect, it was suggested that greater interaction between public defenders and public prosecutors would certainly help speed up the process. At the state level a number of official bodies are in charge of oversight of police behaviour. 1. The Public Prosecutor’s Office 137. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for overseeing prosecutions of all defendants. Article 129 of the Constitution provides that it is exclusively in charge, inter alia, with instituting public criminal action “II. to ensure effective respect by the government branches and by services of public relevance for the rights ensured under this Constitution, taking the action required to guarantee such rights ... VII. to exercise external control over police activities [and] VIII. to request investigation procedures and the institution of police investigations, indicating the legal grounds of its procedural acts.” It must be noted that this has been interpreted as meaning that the Public Prosecutor’s Office has the power to proceed with independent criminal investigations even in cases where no police inquiry has been opened or where a police inquiry is still pending or has been filed, and that it can indict law enforcement officials involved in criminal activities, such as torture. The police inquiry is therefore not an obligatory procedure in a case in which a prosecutor possesses enough prima facie evidence (indícios). Furthermore, no legal provision precludes the competence of this Office from gathering prima facie evidence through other means than a police inquiry, such as, for example, a civil or administrative inquiry. According to the prosecutors whom the Special Rapporteur met, this interpretation is the subject of one of the most serious current institutional struggles, as the police strongly resist this approach. A draft law on the civil police has now been put before Congress which aims at giving public prosecutors more power over police inquiries. In that respect, the President of the Federal Court of Appeal pointed out to the Special Rapporteur that he had publicly denounced the fact that politicians lobbied by the police force were trying to undermine public prosecutors’ powers to supervise police behaviour. 138. Allegations of torture by law enforcement officials are reportedly sent directly to the corregedoria that should open an inquiry. At this stage, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is usually only in a position to initiate another investigation upon receipt of the case file from the police. It is alleged that such inquiries by the police are extremely protracted since police officers are very reluctant to investigate their colleagues’ behaviour. It is also said to be difficult for public prosecutors to investigate crime at police stations. For example, in 1995, a number of prosecutors who intended to enter a police station in Gama (Brasilia) were barred entry by armed police officers. According to the General Prosecutor of the Republic, the Public Prosecutor’s Office could open a criminal inquiry when a parallel administrative inquiry is carried out by the corregedoria. However, he recognized that it would be difficult for prosecutors to bring additional evidence due to the scarcity of means at their disposal. He also expressed dismay at the fact that given the lengthiness of the administrative inquiry, it usually takes a long time before a case reaches the Public Prosecutor’s Office. This lengthy initial part of the process is also alleged to favour impunity as in some instances the prosecution would already be invalidated by the statue of limitation by the time the file reaches the public prosecutor.