CAT/C/TKM/CO/1 that their imprisonment is arbitrary and calls for their immediate release and the provision of compensation for damages. Monitoring and inspection of places of detention 14. While noting the detention monitoring activities by the Office of the ProcuratorGeneral, the Committee is deeply concerned that there is no access for international monitoring bodies, either governmental or non-governmental, to detention facilities in Turkmenistan. The Committee notes that the State party cooperates with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which provides assistance with humanitarian law and in other ways. However, the Committee notes with concern that the State party has not granted ICRC access to detention facilities, despite a number of recommendations made by international bodies, including the General Assembly in its resolutions 59/206 and 60/172, and as noted by the Secretary-General (A/61/489, para. 21). The Committee also expresses regret at the long outstanding requests for a country visit by the nine special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, in particular those of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The Committee urges the State party: (a) To establish a national system that independently, effectively and regularly monitors and inspects all places of detention without prior notice; (b) To grant, as a matter of great urgency, access to independent governmental and non-government organizations, in particular ICRC, to all detention facilities in the country; (c) To strengthen further the cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms, in particular by permitting visits from the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in conformity with the terms of reference for fact-finding missions by special rapporteurs and special representatives (E/CN.4/1998/45), as soon as possible. Enforced disappearances and incommunicado detention 15. The Committee is concerned about a number of persons who have been arrested and sentenced at closed trials without proper defence and imprisoned incommunicado, and the lack of information from the State party on progress made in ascertaining their fate and whereabouts. These persons include Gulgeldy Annaniazov, Ovezgeldy Ataev, Boris Shikhmuradov, Batyr Berdyev, and those imprisoned in connection with the assassination attempt on the former President in 2002, raised, inter alia, by the Special Rapporteur on torture (A/HRC/13/42, paras. 203-204; E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.1, para. 514). In particular, the Committee is concerned about the lack of: (a) effective, independent and transparent investigations into allegations of such practices, and prosecutions and convictions of perpetrators, where appropriate; and (b) due notification of the results of such investigations to the relatives of individuals who have disappeared, including confirmation of their place of detention and whether they are alive. This lack of investigation and follow-up raises serious questions with respect to the State party’s willingness to fulfil its obligations under the Convention and constitutes a continuing violation of the Convention with respect to the relatives of the victims (arts. 12 and 13). The Committee urges the State party: (a) To take all appropriate measures to abolish incommunicado detention and ensure that all persons held incommunicado are released, or charged and tried under due process; 7