E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6 page 12 manner after ascertaining the facts. No one may suppress such complaints, charges and exposures, or retaliate against the citizens making them”; article 22 of the Prison Law;43 article 46 of the Regulations on Detention;44 article 153 of the Regulations on the Procedures of Public Security Organs in Handling Criminal Cases;45 and article 254 of the CL.46 According to article 18 of the CPL, the SPP is the mechanism responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes committed by State functionaries (see article 18 of the CPL).47 Use of confessions and statements extracted through torture 37. Article 43 of the CPL stipulates that “it shall be strictly forbidden to extort confessions by torture and to collect evidence by threat, enticement, deceit or other unlawful means”. However, the CPL does not explicitly prohibit the use of confessions extracted through torture as evidence before the courts as required by article 15 of CAT. In the Decision on Specific Issues in the Implementation of the CPL of 8 September 1998, the SPC held that confessions under torture could not become the basis for determining a case (buneng zuowi ding’an de genju). In the Rules on implementing the CPL, of 18 January 1999, the Supreme People’s Court held: “Criminal suspects’ confessions, victims’ statements, and witness testimonies collected through torture to extract a confession (xingxun bigong), or threats, enticement, cheating and other illegal methods cannot become the basis for a criminal charge (buneng zuowei zhikong fanzui de genzhu)”. Therefore, while such confessions shall not form the basis for charges and convictions, the SPC decision does not exclude their admissibility in judicial proceedings. Further, the SPC Rules are only binding for judicial organs and do not apply to administrative organs. Compensation 38. Article 41 of the Chinese Constitution provides that citizens who have suffered losses through infringement of their civil rights by any State organ or functionary have the right to compensation in accordance with the law. The right to compensation is further developed in articles 3 and 15 of the Law on State Compensation.48 39. However, article 17.1 of the Law on State Compensation stipulates that those detained or sentenced to criminal punishment who “intentionally fabricate confessions or falsify other evidence of guilt” will not be granted compensation by the State. III. THE SITUATION OF TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT Analysis of communications of the Special Rapporteur 40. The Special Rapporteur recalls that over the last several years his predecessors have received a number of serious allegations related to torture and other forms of ill-treatment in China, which have been submitted to the Government for its comments. He cautions that such information does not necessarily illustrate the state of torture and ill-treatment in a given country, but rather reflects the state of information brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur. Nevertheless, over a period of time, the number and consistency of the allegations received may be informative.