Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2017 2 prisons, 2 pre-trial detention centres, 1 field unit of a pre-trial detention centre Areas which require improvement 1. Treatment During the visit the NMPT representatives did not receive any information indicating that the prison personnel was using violence against detainees. Yet, there was some information that police officers did use violence against them at the point of detention and interrogation. Torture - detainees’ accounts “I was beaten during the interrogations. They were beating me all over my body, with a truncheon; they were beating me on my heels. They were threatening that they would find me and my family. They wanted me to admit to breaking into the summer houses in the allotment gardens. During the interrogations I was handcuffed all the time. It took a long time. I did not get anything to eat or to drink. I could only drink a bit of water when they finally let me use the toilet. I had been interrogated a couple of times. Each time I was beaten. At last I admitted I was guilty, but only because I wanted them to leave me alone”. “I was beaten with a truncheon on the corridor of the police department. They wanted me to admit my guilt. They were laughing, spitting on me, calling me names. I was beaten a couple of times. I suffered from health problems as a result of that”. “I was beaten when they arrested me. I was sitting in the car. They sprayed gas in my face and dragged me from the car. I was flung to the ground and kicked. They crashed my head against the surface. I also received a blow with a fist on my side”. Some of the presented accounts bear the traits of torture: waterboarding, hitting on the heels with a truncheon, beating, using threats. Detainees were allegedly handcuffed during interrogation, they 16