(t)The State party should urge the Republic of Montenegro to adopt those guarantees contained in the new Code of Criminal Procedure that are relevant for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. VI.ADOPTION OF THE REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE AND TRANSMISSION TO THE STATE PARTY 214.At its twenty-ninth session, the Committee adopted the report on its inquiry and decided to transmit it to the State party, in accordance with article 20, paragraph 4, of the Convention. The Committee invited the State party, under rule 83, paragraph 2, of its rules of procedure, to inform it of the action taken in response to its conclusions and recommendations. VII. SUMMARY OF THE REPLY FROM THE STATE PARTY 215.On 13 October 2003 the State party informed the Committee that its recommendations were very important in the context of the promotion of human rights to be conducted under the programmes of technical assistance to be provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and on the basis of the memorandum of understanding signed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro and the Office of the High Commissioner. Safeguards against torture and other forms of inadmissible punishment 216.The Charter on Human and Minority Rights and Civil Liberties, published in the Official Gazette of the State Union No. 6/2003, provides in its article 12 not only for the prohibition of torture, but also for an explicit prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In this sense, it constitutes a step forward with respect to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Constitutions of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro. 217.The Basic Criminal Code of Serbia and Montenegro and the criminal codes of the member States incriminate unlawful arrest, extraction of statements and maltreatment in the performance of duty. At the time of the adoption of the amendments to the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now the Basic Criminal Code) in 2001 it was considered that the international obligations under the Convention were incorporated in articles 190 and 191, as well as in articles 65 and 66 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia and articles 47 and 48 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Montenegro. Furthermore, article 12 of the 2001 Code of Criminal Procedure states that any violence against an arrested person and a person whose freedom is limited, as well as any extraction of confession or any other statement from an accused or any other person participating in the proceedings are prohibited and punishable. Other provisions of the Code regarding interrogation, prohibition of the use of force, the obligation of the court not to take into account statements obtained under torture and to remove from the case records statements obtained in contravention of the prohibitions, etc. are also referred to. 218.The laws of the member States concerning the enforcement of criminal sanctions contain no absolute prohibition of torture and other similar treatment. Nonetheless, they provide for human treatment of convicted persons. The member States have also taken measures to reform their legislation in order to guarantee the principle of the independence of the judiciary with respect to the executive. In the Republic of Serbia, the Law on Judges was amended in March 2003, aligning it with international standards. It is expected that the Criminal Code will be amended soon to include the criminal offence of torture. 219.The Government of the Republic of Montenegro set up a working group to draft a Criminal Law, a Law on Criminal Procedure and a Law on the State Prosecutor. It is envisaged that the criminal offence of torture will be incorporated in the Criminal Law. The Code of Criminal Procedure is expected to provide for the verification of suspects’ allegations during pre trial and investigation relative to torture and other inhuman treatment and punishment. Charges and trials in the period 1992-2002 in the cases involving torture and maltreatment 220.From 1 January 1992 to 30 September 2002, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia brought 32 charges against 43 police officials on suspicion of having committed 21 criminal offences of maltreatment, 6 offences of unlawful arrest, 3 offences of coercion to sexual intercourse, 3 offences of unnatural carnal knowledge through the abuse of duty and extraction of statement and 1 offence of carnal act in connection with the criminal offence of coercion to sexual intercourse or unnatural carnal knowledge through the abuse of duty. The greatest number of charges was brought in 2001 and 2002. 221.Between 1 January 2000 and 31 October 2002, citizens lodged 4,625 complaints against police conduct; 523 of them were considered founded and, as a result, disciplinary action was taken against 158 officers for serious breaches of duty and against 111 officers for minor breaches of duty. Pending completion of the proceedings, 32 officers were removed. Ten criminal and 14 minor offence charges were brought, while 4 officers had their employment contract terminated by agreement. It was established that 2,929 complaints were unfounded, while 1,173 are being investigated. The greatest number of processed cases (32 criminal charges against 43 officers) involved improper and/or excessive use of force related to the use of means of coercion. Three persons died, while five sustained serious injuries in those incidents. Upon completion of the proceedings, 12 officers were sentenced to prison terms from 80 days to 6 years. 222.Disciplinary action was taken against 32 officers, 4 officers were dismissed, 10 were fined and 5 were given another assignment. Proceedings against two officers were dropped, five were acquitted and proceedings against six officers are pending. 223.In addition to legal measures taken ex officio by the Ministry of the Interior, 1,076 charges were pressed by citizens directly to the Public Prosecutor against 1,578 officers, most often because of the criminal offence of maltreatment in the line of duty (930), followed by extraction of statement (124) and unlawful arrest. The prosecution of most of the charges was discontinued, as they were found baseless. 224.In ruling on compensation of victims, the courts have begun to apply the Convention against Torture directly.