had accepted the presence of a court-appointed lawyer, his rights were not violated, especially since, as soon as the incommunicado detention was ordered, he was able to designate a lawyer whom he has kept throughout the rest of the proceedings. … Secrecy of inquiry proceedings in the early stages of the investigation is a measure authorized not only by Spanish law, but by nearly all bodies of legislation, as a measure designed to avoid the results of the trial being affected. It does not infringe the rights of the defence, which at the trial stage will have access to all procedural documents and will be able to challenge any irrelevant or illegally obtained evidence. Thus it cannot be considered that any right essential to the defence of the accused has been violated.” In the present case, the complainant could not claim that Mr. Azurmendi was deprived of his right to choose a lawyer. 4.18Finally, with regard to the Committee’s Views in the Arkauz Arana case, the State party maintains that that complaint differed from the present complaint in that it claimed a violation of article 3, and not of article 15, of the Convention, which explains why the Committee provided a long list of reasons that should have led the State party to fear that the author might be subjected to torture if he were deported and why the Committee criticized France for having carried out the deportation, which was later found to be illegal by French courts and which entailed a direct handover from police to police without respect for the detainee’s rights; this is not the case in the present complaint, where an extradition procedure was carried out in accordance with the relevant regulations and where the complainant had in no way been deprived of asserting her rights before French courts. The complainant’s comments 5.1In a letter of 23 June 2002, the complainant commented on the State party’s observations on the merits of the complaint. In her comments, the complainant maintains her allegations and reiterates the arguments set out in her complaint. 5.2In order to demonstrate the relevance of her arguments that the States parties to the Convention must respect article 15 of the Convention, including in cases of extradition or expulsion, the complainant draws the Committee’s attention to the fact that two other European Union countries, Belgium and Portugal, recently refused to extradite three alleged members of ETA pursuant to article 15 of the Convention on the grounds that the requests for extradition were based on evidence obtained as a result of torture. 5.3The complainant considers that the claim that French courts were under no obligation to make inquiries of a third State in order to assess the validity of the allegations of torture is an extremely restrictive interpretation, which is contrary to the purpose of the Convention. Such an interpretation undermines the founding principle of the Convention, namely the absolute prohibition of torture, and one of its major corollaries, the unlawfulness of evidence obtained as a result of torture. Since the present case involves a serious and well-founded allegation that evidence obtained as a result of torture was used as the basis for a procedure, the State party must use the means at its disposal to ascertain the veracity of such allegations. In the case in question, the French courts could, for example, have requested additional information from the Spanish authorities, since this procedure is quite common in extradition cases. Such a request would have allowed the French authorities to assemble and examine, in an objective, fair and thorough manner, all the elements needed to establish that the aforementioned statement had been obtained unlawfully. 5.4With respect to the elements needed to support the allegations that Mr. Azurmendi had made his statements as a result of torture, the complainant refers to a CPT report that deals with the very period during which the statements at issue were made and according to which: “[B]oth before and during the visit, the CPT received reports from other sources containing a considerable number of allegations of ill-treatment by the National Police, the Civil Guard and the Basque Autonomous Police (the Ertzaintza) relating to periods of custody during 1997 and 1998. Those allegations involved blows to various parts of the body and, in some cases, more serious forms of physical ill-treatment, including sexual assault of female detainees by male police officers, and asphyxiation by placing a plastic bag over the head. In certain cases, the reports included medical certificates recording injuries or conditions consistent with the allegations made by the persons concerned. “Many of the above-mentioned reports related to persons detained in the Basque Country or the Navarre region as terrorist suspects or in connection with terrorist-linked public order offences. It would appear that, in a number of those cases, the persons concerned or their relatives have lodged formal complaints, including before the relevant judicial authorities, about the manner in which they have been treated.”o 5.5More precisely, and contrary to the State party’s assertions, in his report submitted on 2 February 2000 (E/CN.4/2000/9, para. 917), the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture indicates that: “Mikel Azurmendi Peñagarikano was arrested in Seville on 21 March 1998 by the Guardia Civil and is currently in the Madrid-2 prison (Alcalá de Henares). Mr. Azurmendi has alleged that during his detention he was subjected to ill-treatment and torture which involved being stamped on and kicked, blows to the ribs, head and testicles, electrodes on the penis, stomach and chest, mock executions, being prevented from seeing, and threats to his family and his partner Maite Pedrosa, who was also arrested. Since entering prison, Mr. Azurmendi has reportedly been suffering from ankle pains which have prevented him from engaging in any physical activity.” 5.6With regard to the presence of a court-appointed lawyer when the statements at issue were made, the complainant also refers to a more recent report of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, according to which: “It has been noted that most of them have allegedly been subjected to interrogation without the presence of a lawyer or have been assigned a lawyer by the court who, at the time when their statements were taken, allegedly agreed with their detention. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur has been informed that the Criminal Procedures Act provides that, during preventive incommunicado detention, the lawyer is appointed by the court; that the detainee may not consult with him in private; and that family members or any other person with whom the detainee wishes to communicate are informed neither of their detention nor of the place where they are being held” (translated from Spanish of E/CN.4/2002/76/Add.1, para. 1390).