CAT/C/TUR/CO/4 (b) Ensure that alleged perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment are immediately suspended from duty for the duration of the investigation, particularly when there is a risk that they might otherwise be in a position to repeat the alleged act, to commit reprisals against the alleged victim or to obstruct the investigation; (c) Ensure that state officials do not use the threat of countercharges as a means of intimidating detained persons or their relatives into not reporting torture; (d) Provide in its next periodic report statistical data on allegations of torture and ill-treatment, disaggregated by relevant indicators, including ethnicity of the victim, and information on cases in which individuals alleging torture or ill-treatment by the authorities have subsequently been charged with an additional criminal offence; (e) Establish an independent authority tasked with investigating complaints against law enforcement officers that is independent of the police hierarchy, as previously recommended by the Committee. Allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in the context of counter-terrorism operations 11. The Committee is seriously concerned about numerous credible reports of law enforcement officials engaging in torture and ill-treatment of detainees while responding to perceived and alleged security threats in the south-eastern part of the country (e.g. Cizre and Silopi) in the context of the resurgence of violence between the Turkish security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) following the breakdown of the peace process in 2015 and terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals linked to the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Committee is further concerned at the reported impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of such acts (arts. 2, 4, 12, 13 and 16). 12. The Committee recalls the absolute prohibition of torture contained in article 2 (2) of the Convention, which stipulates that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. In this connection, the Committee draws the attention of the State party to paragraph 5 of its general comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2 by State parties, in which it states, inter alia, that exceptional circumstances also include any threat of terrorist acts or violent crime, as well as armed conflict, international or non-international. The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Undertake prompt, thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment by security forces, including the allegations of police abuse in Cizre between December 2015 and March 2016, reportedly made by 52 persons and raised with the State party’s delegation by the Committee; (b) Ensure that alleged perpetrators of and accomplices to torture, including persons in positions of command, are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, given penalties commensurate with the grave nature of their acts; (c) Provide effective remedies and redress to victims, including fair and adequate compensation, and as full rehabilitation as possible; (d) Unambiguously reaffirm the absolute prohibition of torture and publicly condemn practices of torture, accompanied by a clear warning that anyone committing such acts or otherwise complicit or acquiescent in torture will be held personally responsible before the law for such acts and will be subject to criminal prosecution and appropriate penalties. 3