E/CN.4/2000/9
page 11
of his arrest, who pronounced him inebriated and diagnosed the injuries reidentified on 21 March, as well as additional symptoms. The court ordered the
case provisionally dismissed on 22 June 1998 because the person who had
allegedly committed the offence of bodily harm could not be identified.
29.
In the same letter dated 26 October 1999, the Special Rapporteur
transmitted to the Government the case of Luis Cufré, aged 14, who was
reportedly arrested and thrown to the pavement in the path of an oncoming truck
on 18 September 1995 in Plaza Constitución, Federal Capital, by police officers
of the Mitre Division (see E/CN.4/1999/61, para. 45). In its letter dated
16 December 1998, the Government indicated that proceedings had been instituted
in National Correctional Court No. 13, Office 79. Implicated in the proceedings
were a corporal of Division No. 1 Mitre SS Railways and the driver of the truck,
which belonged to a garbage collection company and which allegedly ran over the
minor and another person, also a minor. The Government gave detailed information
on the treatment provided for Luis Cufré and the severe injuries he sustained.
The Street Children Division of the National Council for Minors and Families has
been involved in the case, providing assistance in various areas from
documentation to rehabilitation. The case is in pre-trial proceedings.
Investigations of alleged irregularities in the initial handling of the case by
the police are also being made.
30.
In the same letter, the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government that
it has not responded to the information he sent it on 26 May 1997 according to
which a number of detainees at the Córdoba remand centre were subjected to
various forms of torture on 22 January 1996 following disturbances provoked by
an escape attempt (see E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.1). In its letter of 16 December 1998,
the Government provided information on that incident. It transmitted to the
Special Rapporteur the reports of the Penitentiary Service, Córdoba province,
and of the Penjuez Service, which investigated the incident. According to the
reports, proceedings were initiated in the case but no one has been charged,
either in the administrative or in the judicial courts, with the crime of
torture or ill-treatment. The charges brought against three prison employees
were for other causes. Information was given on the injuries suffered by the
various detainees, their gravity and the medical treatment given. Medical
treatment in the penitentiary centre had been deemed adequate by two forensic
scientists and three defence lawyers. Evidence had been taken from over
100 persons, but it lacked consistency. Although the case was being processed by
Federal Court No. 3 and Examining Court No. 12, both of Córdoba, the Government
stated that the "case in question does not involve one of the forms of torture,
since not a single employee of the Penitentiary Service in the entire province
is suspected or accused of the crime of torture." As for the investigations
carried out to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death of three of the
detainees and, in the death of Luis Rogelio Martín, the possible implication of
drug trafficking, that case has been transferred to the Federal Court for
jurisdictional reasons. With respect to detainees Sánchez and Sarriá, despite
numerous inquiries, autopsies and testimony, the specific events which led to
their deaths have still not been definitively revealed.
Australia
Urgent appeals and replies received
31.
On 6 December 1999, the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal on
behalf of a Libyan asylum-seeker, whose name is unknown to the Special
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents