CAT/C/VEN/CO/3-4 Service. The Committee regrets that the information provided does not include up-to-date official data on the verdicts and sentences handed down during this period. According to the statistics annexed to the combined third and fourth periodic reports, between 2003 and 2011 only 12 officials were sentenced for committing acts of torture. The Committee is deeply concerned about reports that prosecutors are often failing to initiate investigations ex officio, despite clear signs of injury to detained persons (arts. 12 and 13). The Committee urges the State party to: (a) Guarantee victims immediate access to judicial bodies to report incidents of torture and ill-treatment and ensure their protection; (b) Take steps to ensure that any allegations of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers are investigated ex officio and in a prompt, thorough and impartial manner, from the moment that detained persons are brought before the procedural court. Such investigations should be the responsibility of an independent body composed of prosecutors chosen by public competition and with authority to take decisions and act independently; (c) Accelerate the process of restructuring, purging and training of the police force and ensure that the Public Prosecution Service entrusts the investigation of reports of torture or ill-treatment by law enforcement officers only to independent investigators; (d) Prosecute the alleged perpetrators of acts of torture or ill-treatment and, if they are found guilty, ensure that their sentences are commensurate with the gravity of their acts. Arbitrary detention and due process guarantees 9. The Committee takes note of the data from the Public Prosecution Service showing that 3,306 persons, including 400 adolescents, were detained from February to June 2014 in connection with demonstrations that occurred during that period. The Committee is concerned about consistent reports that many of these detentions were arbitrary, inasmuch as no arrest warrants were issued and no one was apprehended in flagrante delicto, as in the detentions in residential areas near the protest sites. The Committee also notes that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the detention of political opposition members Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos to be arbitrary and that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern at the prolonged and arbitrary detention of opposition members and demonstrators. The Committee is likewise concerned about information indicating that many of the detainees were not informed of the reasons for their detention, were not given the opportunity to confer with an attorney in private until just minutes before their court hearing and were shifted around to various detention centres without their family members being informed of their whereabouts. In addition, in some cases, detainees allegedly received no medical treatment until the court hearing, even though there was clear evidence that they had been subjected to violence (arts. 2 and 16). The State party should adopt effective measures without delay to ensure that persons are arrested in flagrante delicto only at the precise moment of the commission of an offence and, in conformity with the opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to secure the immediate release of Leopoldo López and Daniel Ceballos and all those who have been arbitrarily detained for having exercised their right to self-expression and peaceful protest. The State should also ensure the enjoyment, from the moment a person is deprived of his or her liberty, of all the fundamental legal safeguards, in particular by: GE.14-24172 3