Annual Report 2012: Spain’s National Preventive Mechanism
Mattress in one of the cells at
the Command HQ of the Civil
Photograph 13
Guard in Huesca
The interviewed detainees
did not have complaints
regarding the treatment or
attention received by the
officers
39. In the interviews held with detainees, they generally did not express any
complaint in relation to the treatment or attention that they had received from
the officers at the facilities where they were under custody. However, there was a
detainee interviewed at the Spanish National Police Force station in the Cara
banchel district (Madrid), who declared having been subject to incorrect verbal
treatment by the officers, without giving any more details. Another detainee in
the same facility declared having been the subject of physical ill-treatment when
he was taken to a cell. This Institution was able to check, through the images on
one of the recordings, that the action of the officers could not be considered ill
treatment, but proportional to the resistant attitude shown by the detainee.
Another detainee at the Spanish National Police Force station in Malaga declared
that he had been hit in the abdomen and arms, when he was handcuffed upon
arrival at said facility (he had been detained for more than two days), even though
he had no sign whatsoever of such ill-treatment.
On the other hand, an overwhelming majority of the interviewed detainees de
clared that when they called the officers, they come promptly: “You have to shout
at them, but they come. They take 10 minutes”; “you tell them and they open the
cell”; “I didn’t have to wait for long”. However, some detainees complained, such
as two who were at the Spanish National Police Force station in the Vallecas dis
trict (Madrid), stating that “they pay no attention to you”; “I was calling for half
an hour and had to urinate in a corner of the cell. Then I cleaned it with a mop
that they gave me”.
Any intimidating and
threatening object should
be removed
56
During the visit to the Spanish National Police Force station in the MoncloaAravaca district (Madrid), it was detected that, at the entrance to the corridor of
cells, there was an air extractor metal support where there was a drawing or en
graving of a skull with two crossbones, with the inscription “RIP” (rest in peace)
underneath and the inscription “IRON BARS” (rejas) to the right, which was
deemed to be intimidating for the persons coming into those prison cells,
THE OMBUDSMAN OF SPAIN
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents