All measures and safeguards outlined above seem to be mutually reinforcing, and it is difficult to tell which ones should be taken first. Which specific steps were or would be decisive in your country in order to change police culture? Safeguards against torture and ill-treatment Length of police custody and the role of judges and prosecutors 18. In CoE countries, the total time that criminal suspects can legally be held in police custody generally varies between 24 and 96 hours;17 within this period,18 they have to be presented to a judicial authority (either a prosecutor, or more often, a judge) who will remand them in custody or release them. A number of countries have introduced a possibility to further extend this period for persons suspected of certain crimes, such as terrorism or organised crime. As an additional safeguard, these provisions partly foresee that the detained persons must be physically brought before a judge within certain intervals, as is the case in Ireland, where persons suspected of drug-trafficking offences can be held in custody for a total of seven days, with intermittent court hearings.19 19. The important role that judges and prosecutors play in the prevention of police illtreatment cannot be overstressed. Oftentimes, they are the first authorities, independent of the police, that get to see arrested persons, and in many cases shortly after their apprehension. It would be desirable for judges and prosecutors to routinely ask arrested persons whether all procedural safeguards (right to a lawyer, right to notify a family member, right to a doctor) have been observed, and to inquire about the treatment they have received from the police (ideally not in the presence of escorting officers), as well as to observe whether the persons before them display any visible injuries. 20. Any complaint or other indication of ill-treatment should be recorded and promptly transmitted to the appropriate investigating authority; a forensic medical examination should be ordered; and measures for the protection of the person should be taken. Ukraine, for instance, has made these precepts a legal obligation under its criminal procedure law (Section 206 Criminal Procedure Code), which has yielded already some positive results in the strengthening of this safeguard.20 Could this example of an explicit legal obligation of judicial authorities to react to allegations or indications of police ill-treatment be introduced in other countries? What other measures could be taken to sensitise judges and prosecutors to police ill-treatment? Note that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (fn. 13, para. 63), as well as the UN Human Rights Committee in its General Comment No. 35 on liberty and security of person (CCPR/C/GC/35 of 16 December 2014, para. 33), argue that – save in absolutely exceptional circumstances - persons should not be held for longer than 48 hours in police custody. 18 In Montenegro and Serbia, criminal suspects have to be brought before a prosecutor after twelve and eight hours respectively. 19 Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996. 20 Report to the Ukrainian Government on the visit to Ukraine carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 21 to 30 November 2016, CPT/Inf(2017)15, para. 19. 17 7