OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 41 concerned an extradition to Spain where the basis of the extradition request were statements by a third party allegedly obtained by torture. Criminal proceedings initiated by the third party against his alleged torturers were discontinued by the Spanish authorities and the complaint was therefore dismissed by the Committee as unsubstantiated; consequently, there had been no violation of Article 15 by Switzerland in extraditing the complainant. 131. It its concluding observations on Russia of 6 February 2007 (CAT/C/RUS/CO/4), the Committee was concerned that, while the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure stated that evidence obtained by torture was inadmissible, in practice there appeared to be no instruction to the courts to rule that the evidence was inadmissible, or to order an immediate, impartial and effective investigation. The Committee recommended the adoption of clear legal provisions prescribing the measures to be taken by courts should evidence appear to have been obtained through torture or ill-treatment, in order to ensure in practice the absolute respect for the principle of inadmissibility of evidence obtained through torture. Concerns were also expressed by the Committee in its concluding observations on the United States of America (25 July 2006, CAT/C/USA/CO/2), in relation to the application of Article 15 to military commissions and the bodies which would review the cases of those detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It recommended that the United State establish an independent mechanism to guarantee the rights of all detainees in its custody. In its Report on Mexico (26 May 2003, CAT/C/75) the Committee considered that Article 20 of the Mexican Constitution (which provided that a confession not made before the Public Prosecutor or a judge or made without the presence of defence counsel had no evidential value) was not sufficient in practice to prevent torture. Detainees were afraid to tell the Public Prosecutor they had been tortured; there was insufficient access to legal advice; there the police and Public Prosecutor’s office worked closely together and detainees were shuttled repeatedly between each service for the purposes of interrogation and then forced confessions; prosecutor’s did not conduct investigations into torture allegations and, if they did, still made use of the confession; medical experts were not sufficiently independent from the prosecutor. It was “extraordinarily difficult’ to have forced confessions excluded: courts had no independent means of ascertaining whether confessions were made voluntarily (paragraphs 155, 196-202, 219 and 220 of the Report). b. France 132. Article 15 was relied on by the cour d’appel de Pau in its decision to refuse an extradition request by Spain in Irastorza Dorronsoro, case no. 238/2003, 16 May 2003. It had been accepted by the Spanish authorities