CAT/C/MAR/CO/4 Use of torture in cases involving security concerns 10. The Committee is concerned by numerous allegations regarding torture and illtreatment committed by police officers, prison staff and, in particular, agents of the National Surveillance Directorate (DST) who are acting as members of the criminal investigation police force when people are deprived of basic legal safeguards, such as access to legal counsel, particularly in the case of people who are suspected of belonging to terrorist networks or of being supporters of independence for Western Sahara and in the course of interrogations carried out in order to extract confessions from persons suspected of terrorism (arts. 2, 4, 11 and 15). The State party should immediately take substantive steps to investigate acts of torture and to prosecute and punish those who have committed such acts. The State party should ensure that law enforcement officers do not engage in torture through, inter alia, an unambiguous reaffirmation of the absolute prohibition of torture and a public condemnation of that practice by, in particular, the police, prison personnel and members of DST. It should also be made very clear that anyone who commits such acts or is complicit or otherwise participates in such acts will be held personally responsible before the law and will be subject to criminal prosecution and the appropriate penalties. “Extraordinary renditions” 11. The Committee takes note of the State party’s statements that it was not involved in any extraordinary renditions undertaken as part of the international fight against terrorism. The Committee nevertheless remains concerned by allegations that Morocco has served as a departure point, a transit country and a destination for blatantly illegal “extraordinary renditions” in such cases as those of Binyam Mohamed, Ramzi bin al-Shib and Mohamed Gatit. It notes that the incomplete information furnished by the State party on the investigations conducted in that connection is not sufficient to refute those allegations. The Committee is gravely concerned by the allegations that all these “extraordinary renditions” are reported to have been accompanied by incommunicado detention and/or detention in secret places, acts of torture and ill-treatment, particularly during the interrogation of suspects, as well as the return of persons to countries where they may also have been subjected to torture (arts. 2, 3, 5, 11, 12 and 16). The State party should ensure that no one who is at any time under its control becomes the object of an “extraordinary rendition”. The transfer, refoulement, detention or interrogation of persons under such circumstances is in itself a violation of the Convention. The State party should conduct effective, impartial investigations into any and all cases of “extraordinary rendition” in which it may have played a role and bring to light the facts surrounding such cases. The State party should prosecute and punish those responsible for such renditions. Events involving Western Sahara 12. The Committee is concerned by the reports it has received regarding the alleged use by Moroccan law enforcement officers and security personnel of practices in Western Sahara such as arbitrary arrest and detention, incommunicado detention, detention in secret places, torture, ill-treatment, the extraction of confessions under torture and the excessive use of force. The Committee recalls once more that, under the Convention, no exceptional circumstance whatsoever may be invoked as a justification of torture in territory that falls under the State party’s jurisdiction and that law enforcement measures and investigative procedures should be in full accord with international human rights law, GE.11-47997 5