E/CN.4/1999/61/Add.1 page 10 actually beat or wound a person in circumstances other than prescribed by laws and regulations, shall be punished by imprisonment for three months to three years and shall be temporarily disqualified from the civil service”. 31. The Minister of State in Charge of Human Rights, Dr. Hikmet Sami Türk, informed the Special Rapporteur during the mission that a bill was currently before the Parliamentary Justice Commission to amend articles 243 and 245 of the Penal Code by increasing the length of sentences for those found guilty of the respective offences. The sentence under article 243 will be increased from one to five years to two to eight years, and that under article 245 from three months to three years to six months to five years. Further, under article 354 of the Penal Code, which pertains to the falsification of medical certificates, proposed amendments would allow a guilty party to be punished with a sentence of from four to eight years. 32. Article 13 of Law No. 3842, which was adopted in November 1992 amending the Code of Criminal Procedure, bans torture and other prohibited interrogation methods. Further, article 24, which was added to article 254 of the Code, prohibits the use of evidence gathered illegally: “Evidence gathered illegally by the investigation and prosecution authorities cannot constitute a basis for a verdict.” 33. On 3 December 1997, the Office of the Prime Minister issued a circular on respect for human rights and the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. Inter alia, the circular provides: “2. Suspects will not be exposed to ill-treatment no matter what their crime; necessary investigations into allegations of torture and ill-treatment will be carried out without delay. “3. Legal proceedings will be instituted immediately against those officers shown to have been involved in torture and ill-treatment. Proceedings will be completed as soon as possible. “4. Convicts and detainees will not be exposed to abusive or humiliating treatment either in prison or during periods of transfer.” 34. Another positive development was the entry into force on 1 October 1998 of the “Regulation on Apprehension, Police Custody and Interrogation”. This Regulation sets out the principles and procedures that are to be applied by police officers when a person is apprehended and placed in custody or detention. Article 23 of the Regulation provides that “the person under custody, (a) cannot be submitted to physical or emotional interventions which disrupt the free will, such as mistreatment, hampering free will, torture, administering medicine by force, tiring, misleading, use of physical force or violence, use of devices; (b) cannot be promised an illegal benefit.” 35. Perhaps the most important provisions of this regulation are contained in Part III pertaining to the length of custody, release and transfer to judicial authorities. Previous reports by international human rights bodies have repeatedly criticized the length of detention before the detainee is brought before a judge. For example, in its summary account of the results of the proceedings concerning the inquiry on Turkey, the Committee against