CAT/C/75 page 47 (i) The fact that medical experts are not independent of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the way in which medical reports are prepared following examinations of detainees. In actual fact medical experts complete a form that differs from State to State and allows a description only of the injuries, not of how they were caused. 220. In the light of these considerations, the Committee members consider it appropriate to make the following recommendations: (a) The constitutional guarantee requiring a warrant before an arrest can be made should be reinforced by revoking the power of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to issue warrants and ensuring that the only exception is arrest in flagrante delicto, which should be restricted to cases in which an individual is surprised in the act of committing an offence or immediately after doing so with the instruments used in the offence in his possession, or is pursued and caught immediately after committing an offence. Under no circumstances should arrest in flagrante delicto be possible more than 24 hours after the offence is committed. With regard to urgent cases, the current regulations should be replaced by an appropriate procedure enabling the Public Prosecutor’s Office to obtain arrest warrants from the court at any time; (b) It should be made an obligation, after any arrest, to report the arrest to a court authority; and the time limit for producing the detainee in court should be set at 24 hours. The law should provide that the detainee may be produced on any day and at any time and that the judicial authorities must be permanently available for that purpose. A system should also be established for providing the general public with information on arrests made throughout the country; the information should be accessible in major cities, at least in the Federal District and in State capitals; (c) A judicial procedure should be instituted for the supervision of places of detention and prisons through frequent, unannounced inspections. Similar supervision should be carried out independently by the human rights bodies, in addition to any inspections that may be required in connection with individual situations of which they may have been apprised in any way or complaints received; (d) The law should provide that judges receiving detainees who have been committed for trial by the Public Prosecutor’s Office shall inquire explicitly about the treatment received since their arrest and shall ask questions to check whether their statements to the prosecutor were made freely and without any form of coercion. In all cases, the law should also provide for detainees to be examined by a doctor who is independent of the police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office; (e) The police should be under a legal obligation to inform all detainees of their rights at the time of arrest, and in particular of their right to remain silent and to have in attendance a defence lawyer whom they trust or, if they do not wish or are unable to have one, to have court-appointed counsel. To that end, detainees should be provided with the means to communicate the circumstances of their arrest and the place where they are being held to whomsoever they choose. The law should provide that counsel shall always have the right, from the moment detention begins, to meet the detainee in private and without witnesses. The State

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