provided by NGOs and lawyers, and also by victims, some in detention, others who had been released, who stated that they had been subjected to such practices, in particular at the hands of the Preventive Police. These acts usually occurred at the time of arrest, during transport to police stations or at police stations in the first few hours of detention. The purpose of torture and ill-treatment, according to those interviewed, was to obtain information that could be used in the investigation of offences, although it was also simply a punishment for anyone suspected of some offence. 27.One NGO, the Centre for the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and their Relatives (CPTRT), has in its database 227 cases of torture and ill-treatment that took place between 16 March 2004 and 21 November 2008, the Preventive Police being the body most commonly cited. A study conducted by CPTRT, based on interviews with 213 people in nine visits to prisons in the east central area of the country, reported 61 per cent claiming to have been subjected to some form of physical illtreatment before their imprisonment. The police justified the use of force with the contention that the detainees were drunk, had resisted arrest or had tried to escape. The techniques used generally involve kicks, or beatings with cudgels (toletes) or anything else to hand in the place of detention or the police station. 28.The Special Attorney for Human Rights in San Pedro Sula gave the Subcommittee copies of the 12 complaints he had brought before the courts between 2008 and 2009 for torture and related offences, among them the case of three people detained on 28 February 2009 and tortured by officers of DNIC who were investigating an arms theft. The complaint states that the detainees were blindfolded with their own shirts and taken to an unknown place, where the officers beat them with clubs and put plastic bags over their heads and filled them with gas. One of the detainees stopped breathing and the officers took the body to an unknown place. 29.Another of the complaints concerns a young man and his girlfriend, who were arrested on 22 January 2008 in Choloma, Cortés, supposedly for not having their identity papers on them and because the man had tattoos alluding to the “18” gang. They were taken to the Choloma Metropolitan Division. The young woman and other witnesses saw the man the next day, and he showed signs of having been beaten. He was later taken from his cell to the office and forced to put a fingerprint in the prison log to show that he had been released. Two policemen then put him in a car, which left for an unknown destination. When the family asked after him they were told he had been released. On 29 January 2008 his family identified his body in the forensic medical morgue. It had been found in the district of El Ocotillo, Choloma. 30.Several detainees in police custody interviewed by the Subcommittee described how they had been beaten during their arrest. One 17-year-old at Metropolitan Division No. 3 in Comayagüela, Tegucigalpa, showed the Subcommittee marks of cudgel blows on his back. He said that he and a friend had been arrested the day before by two policemen who accused them of stealing. They had spent the day selling newspapers and had a small amount of money on them, which the policemen took. On more than one occasion, the Subcommittee found minors aged between 15 and 17 in police custody. 31.One detainee interviewed at DNIC in Tegucigalpa stated that he had been kicked during arrest. Another claimed that the police had sprayed pepper gas in his eyes. Several complained that detainees had been handcuffed and shackled en route from the place of detention to the judge’s chambers and that in some cases the shackles had not been removed even for the hearing before the judge. 32.None of the detainees interviewed by the Subcommittee had filed complaints concerning the torture or ill-treatment described — even though some of them could have done so at the hearing in the Public Prosecutor’s Office or in court — claiming that they feared reprisals or that the remedies available were ineffective. Some detainees told the Subcommittee that their own counsel had advised them not to report their ill-treatment to the judge. In this connection, the Subcommittee underlines that steps should be taken to ensure that persons who file a complaint of torture or illtreatment are protected against possible reprisals. 33.At the State prison in San Pedro Sula, the Subcommittee collected concurring testimony from the three individuals who claimed to have been tortured by DNIC just before they were admitted to prison. They stated that police arrested two of them in the street and took them to Metropolitan Combined Division No. 2, La Pradera, where they were severely beaten all over, at times with a baseball bat, for several hours. This incident allegedly took place a few weeks before the Subcommittee’s visit. 34.The third person interviewed said he had been arrested only the week before by DNIC and taken to La Pradera. At the time of the visit this prisoner showed traces of beatings on various parts of the body. A medical examination conducted by the Subcommittee revealed subconjunctival haemorrhaging in the right eye, of greenish-yellow appearance, and a two-centimetre hypertrophic lesion on the inside lip. The right buttock was inflamed and showed dark colouration. On the outside of the left thigh a haematoma was visible, a multicoloured haematoma presenting in the form of intermittently separated “tramlines”. On the inside shin on each leg, irregularshaped lesions measuring several centimetres were noted, partially incrusted and on the right leg secreting pus. The whole of the right leg from knee to ankle was inflamed and black and blue in colour. Below the ankle was a greenish-blue bruise. The Subcommittee concluded that these were objective traces of multiple trauma, with numerous large bruises and superficial lesions of a kind and age fully consistent with the description of the treatment received. The thigh lesion presented characteristics strongly indicative of injuries caused by an object of the kind the detainee alleged had been used to beat him. 35.These three detainees also stated that they had been given electric shocks to the testicles and that the officers had put a noose around their necks and gradually tightened it. They also said they had been subjected to the “helicopter” technique, which involves hanging someone up by their extremities, attaching “scales” to their testicles and gradually increasing the weight. They claim that by these methods they were forced to sign a document they were unable to read. 36.On its visit to the DNIC premises, the Subcommittee saw in one of the bathrooms a piece of wood very similar in appearance to a baseball bat, around 1.5 m long and 7 cm thick, and the first 30 cm cylindrical in section. 37.From the standpoint of prevention, it is important to recognize that there is a risk of torture or ill-treatment during arrest, investigation and detention by the police. By the same token, it must be made clear that such acts will not be tolerated under any circumstances and that the perpetrators will be punished, thereby excluding any possibility of impunity.