CAT/C/75 page 13 Attorney-General of the Republic, they had been hit and threatened, their hands had been tied behind their backs and they had been blindfolded. On arrival, they were beaten repeatedly on different parts of their bodies and had plastic bags placed over their heads and their heads held underwater while they were being threatened. They reported that other detainees in the same place had suffered similar treatment. They had also been deprived of sleep and food and of contact (including telephone contact) with their families, who were told they were not being held there. They were brought before an official of the Public Prosecutor’s Office several times, but as they refused to confess to the offences with which they were charged, the police had brought them back to where they had been held since their arrest (a sort of garage) and gone on beating them. They eventually signed statements whose contents they were not allowed to read. Only after signing the statements were they taken to cells and their families allowed to see them. The Committee members found that the medical reports by the expert of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic, like those issued on the interviewees’ arrival at the prison, referred to injuries. One of the detainees told the Committee members that the judge in his case had said that the certificates were not enough to prove that there had been torture and that it was for him, the accused, to supply other evidence to prove that the injuries were the result of torture. 2. Testimony of persons at liberty 40. The Committee members heard testimony from people who had been tortured in detention but subsequently released, and from relatives of people who had been tortured and were still in detention. In two instances, the testimony was given in the Federal District. In one, the person testifying was a male juvenile who had been arrested in Quiroga, Michoacán, in November 2000 and tortured by the judicial police by being beaten and having a plastic bag placed over his head. Because of the torture, he had implicated a friend in the robbery of which he had been accused. 41. In the second instance the testimony concerned three young people, two males and a female, who had been arrested in Puebla in April 2001 and tortured in various ways by the judicial police, who had accused them of killing a woman in January of the same year. The testimony was given by the father of one of the detainees and the mother of another. The complaint filed with the Public Prosecutor’s Office describes the arrest of one of the men as follows: “As he was waiting for the minibus to go to class (...), two men came up and immediately, without saying a word, began to hit him on the head and threw him on the ground. When he tried to get up, they hit him on various parts of the body. Almost immediately, a van drew up (...), several people got out and forced him into it, while continuing to hit him. They threw him face down on the floor of the van and two of them put their feet on his head and back, immobilizing him completely. When asked what they wanted of him, one replied ‘shut up, berk, this is a kidnapping’ and promptly put a balaclava over his face. Having reached a place that he could not identify, they removed the balaclava, blindfolded him, and took off his clothes, leaving him in his underpants. Then they began to wet him and threw him on the floor, and one of them said ‘You’re going to talk, or it’ll cost you’. They asked him how many times he’d stolen something. When he said never, they started hitting him again, put a plastic bag on his face and poured water on him. When they saw that he was having difficulty breathing they let him rest, then resumed hitting him. They did this over and over again (...). Later, one of them