397. Clarifications were also sought on the legislative measures adopted in order to safeguard the universal jurisdiction provided for in articles 5 to 7 of the Convention. 398. Further information was requested about the implementation of articles 8 and 9 of the Convention, particularly with regard to the mutual judicial assistance procedure followed in practice. 399. The members of the Committee asked what measures were taken to give practical effect to the provisions of article 10 of the Convention. 400. With regard to article 11 of the Convention, the members of the Committee requested information on rules relating to the interrogation of suspects and the prohibition of corporal punishment with a view to extorting confessions, since allegations by non-governmental organizations referred to many cases of persons detained in secret, and on opportunities for persons arrested to contact a family member, consult a qualified doctor and choose a lawyer as soon as they were arrested. They also asked how many persons were detained in the country’s prisons or held in administrative detention and whether measures were envisaged to place a time-limit on the length of pre-trial detention. They requested further information on the definition of the crime of counter-revolution and on the situation of the 4,329 persons held in Chinese prisons for such crimes; they asked whether re-education through labour could be used as part of administrative penalties, how many persons were affected by such penalties and how many had died in prison or in re-education-through-labour camps. 401. The members requested clarifications about the conditions in which a person could be subjected to a form of administrative detention known as "protective custody during investigation"; the number of persons involved and the procedural safeguards available to them, in particular any opportunity for remedies in cases of torture; and allegations that persons thus placed in "protective custody during investigation" were deprived of certain rights, particularly that of communicating with members of their family or their defence counsel, and were frequently detained for longer than the regulation three months and subjected to torture. They also asked whether steps had been taken by the competent authorities as a result of allegations of torture and suspicious death among persons detained in such special centres. 402. As to articles 12 and 13 of the Convention, the members of the Committee said that they would like further information on complaints filed against public officials, on the outcome of the inquiries conducted and on the number and nature of sentences handed down against persons found guilty of violating citizens’ human and democratic rights and of acts of torture in particular. 403. On the subject of article 14 of the Convention, the members of the Committee also requested clarifications of the conditions in which a victim of an act of torture, or claimants on his behalf, could obtain compensation, particularly when the guilty person was an agent of the State. 404. With reference to article 15 of the Convention, the members of the Committee asked whether a statement obtained by torture could be invoked as evidence in a trial, whether such cases had occurred in practice and what use the courts made of such evidence. 405. On article 16 of the Convention, the members referred to information from non-governmental sources according to which sentences to the death penalty had increased sharply during recent years, having reached 1,891 in 1992, involving 1,079 executions. They requested clarifications in that regard and asked whether the death sentence might not constitute a form of cruel and inhuman -64-