CAT/C/51/D/376/2009 5.3 The Committee finds no other reason to consider the communication inadmissible and thus proceeds to its consideration of the merits of the claims submitted by the complainant under articles 1, 2 (para. 1), 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16 of the Convention. Consideration of the merits 6.1 The Committee has considered the complaint in the light of all the information made available to it by the parties, in accordance with article 22, paragraph 4, of the Convention. As the State party has not provided any observation on the merits, due weight must be given to the complainant’s allegations. 6.2 The Committee notes that, according to the complainant, on 23 December 2006, three days after his initial arrest, Mounir Hammouche was arrested by DRS agents and driven to the Territorial Centre for Research and Investigation in Constantine – an army barracks where, according to the testimony of his fellow prisoners, he was tortured. On 29 December 2006, agents of the State party visited Mounir Hammouche’s home in order to announce to his family that he had died in police custody. Several hours later, the victim’s body was returned to his family, who were able to detect an injury to his head and bruises on his hands and feet. According to the complainant, these injuries suggest that grievous bodily harm, which must be considered to have caused severe pain and suffering, was intentionally inflicted upon Mounir Hammouche during his detention by officials of the State party with a view to obtaining a confession, or to punishing or intimidating him because of his purported adherence to Islamist ideology. In the absence of any substantive refutation by the State party, the Committee concludes that due weight must be given to the author’s allegations and that the facts, as submitted by the complainant, constitute acts of torture, within the meaning of article 1 of the Convention. 6.3 In the light of the above finding of a violation of article 1, the Committee will not consider separately the claims based on the violation of article 16 of the Convention, invoked in the alternative by the complainant. 6.4 The complainant also invokes article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, according to which the State party should have taken all “effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction”. She adds that Algerian law contains no provision that prohibits the use of confessions or statements extracted under torture as evidence; that Algerian legislation provides for a period of police custody of up to 12 days, while not allowing any possibility for the prisoner to contact a family member, lawyer or independent doctor; and that this long period of incommunicado detention heightens the risk of torture and ill-treatment. The Committee recalls its concluding observations, adopted in May 2008 following its consideration of the State party’s third periodic report, in which it expressed its concern at the length of the period of police custody allowable by law, which, in practice, can be extended several times; at the fact that the law does not guarantee the right to consult a lawyer during the period of police custody; and at the fact that the rights of persons held in custody to have access to a doctor and to communicate with their family are not always respected in practice.18 These observations echo the Committee’s general comment No. 2 (2008), in which it draws attention to the content of States parties’ obligation under article 2, paragraph 1, to take effective measures to prevent torture, particularly through the application of certain fundamental guarantees applicable to all persons deprived of their liberty.19 In the present 18 19 GE.13-49959 CAT/C/DZA/CO/3, para. 5. Such measures include, inter alia, maintaining an official register of detainees, the right of detainees to be informed of their rights, the right promptly to receive independent legal and medical assistance, and to contact relatives, the need to establish impartial mechanisms for inspecting places of detention, 9