E/CN.A/1992/17
page 99
IV.
FOLLOW-UP TO VISITS
270. On 20 August 1991 the Turkish Government sent the Special
text of new regulations issued by the Ministry of the Interior
procedure to be followed by the police in questioning suspects
their statements. The main provisions of this text, which was
country's police authorities on 6 August 1991, are as follows:
Rapporteur the
concerning the
and taking
sent to the
(a) A person in custody must be given a medical examination, attested by
a report, before he is questioned, and again after the questioning is finished
and before he is brought before the judicial authorities;
(b) During questioning, suspects must in no case be subjected to
torture, ill-treatment or physical or psychological pressure;
(c) The questioning shall last not more than four successive hours and
eight hours in a day. There shall be an interval of two hours between two
questioning sessions to enable suspects to eat, rest, etc.;
(d) The names of the persons present at the questioning, its content and
the words spoken shall be carefully recorded so that they can be examined by a
competent authority;
(e)
The questioning shall be conducted sitting down;
(f)
There shall be no altercation with the person questioned;
(g) After the end of the questioning a report shall be drawn up and
signed by the persons who took part in it, stating the purpose of the
questioning and the times at which it began and ended.
271. On 19 July 1991 the Government of the Philippines transmitted to the
Special Rapporteur a copy of Republic Act No. 7055, signed into law by
President Aquino on 20 June 1991 and entitled "An Act strengthening civilian
supremacy over the military by returning to the civil courts the jurisdiction
over certain offences involving members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines,
other persons subject to military law, and the members of the Philippine
National Police, repealing for the purpose certain Presidential Decrees".
Section 3 of this Act repealed, inter alia. Presidential Decree No. 1850,
which provided the military courts with jurisdiction over all offences
committed by members of the armed forces and the police. The revocation of
this decree had been recommended by the Special Rapporteur in his report on
his visit to the country (see E/CN.4/1991/17, para. 269).
272. The Government also informed the Special Rapporteur that on 18 June 1991
the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, the Department of National Defense,
the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior and Local Government
and the National Police, had signed a memorandum of agreement outlining the
procedures to be followed in the release from custody of detainees or accused
persons to minimize if not eliminate altogether incidents of disappearance.
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