CAT/C/49/D/346/2008 violence, including the torture of prisoners by the police in order to extract confessions or for the purposes of intimidation or extortion.4 3.3 The complainant refers to an article published on the website Prisoners of Silence, which focuses on the situation of Italian nationals detained in foreign countries who are at risk of becoming the victims of human rights violations. According to this article, following a request from an Italian national detained in Brazil for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene on his behalf, a bilateral agreement was signed by Italy and Brazil under which Italian nationals who are convicted by Brazilian courts have the option to serve their sentences in a prison in their country of origin, i.e., Italy. The complainant argues that this agreement could apply to his case in the event of a definitive conviction by the Brazilian courts, on condition that the case was tried in accordance with the fundamental legal safeguards recognized in Italy. 3.4 Although the prison situation in Brazil was brought to the attention of the Monegasque Court of Appeal, sitting in chambers, by means of a petition signed by Brazilian detainees denouncing the prison conditions in Brazil and a letter addressed by a former lawyer held in custody in Brazil to the Sovereign Prince of Monaco, the Court of Appeal did not consider it necessary to include a provision in its judgement that would require guarantees regarding respect for article 3 of the Convention from the Brazilian authorities in the event of extradition. The complainant adds that he is elderly and in poor health, as he suffers from hypertension, which is an aggravating factor. 3.5 For the last 10 years, the complainant has been portrayed by the Brazilian press and authorities as a public enemy. He is therefore afraid that he would be exposed to retaliatory measures owing to his unpopularity as a result of the media campaign. He has, in fact, written a book about his situation, which he has attached to this complaint. The case is highly political because the complainant was prosecuted, along with other managers of the Central Bank of Brazil, on suspicion of insider trading at the highest levels of the Brazilian Government, and the complainant himself had made accusations in that regard. In his book, the complainant denounces corruption among members of the judiciary, including the judge who issued the arrest warrant for him in 2007 and who was later himself charged with corruption. 3.6 The complainant considers that his fundamental rights were not respected during the judicial proceedings in Brazil, inasmuch as the decision to grant him provisional release was simply rescinded without giving him the opportunity to challenge that measure. The harassment to which he was subjected was so serious that his daughter committed suicide. In addition, at the time of the submission of his complaint to the Committee, Brazil was in the midst of national elections, and the Brazilian authorities and the press could have considered the complainant to be in possession of information that would incriminate topranking Brazilian authorities of that time. State party’s observations on admissibility 4.1 On 9 September 2008, the State party challenged the admissibility of the communication under article 22, paragraphs 5 (a) and (b), of the Convention. 4.2 The State party notes that, according to information submitted by the complainant himself, the case has also been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights, with the 4 4 The complainant refers to numerous documents issued by Human Rights Watch, in particular “Brazil: Investigate Killings of Brazilian Prisoners”, dated 20 February 2001, and the report entitled “Behind Bars in Brazil” (and specifically chapter VII of that report, entitled “Prisoner-on-Prisoner Abuses”) of December 1998. GE.13-40769