CAT/C/MDA/CO/2
(a)
Direct reference to articles 12 and 13 of the Convention by the Supreme
Court of Justice in cases examined in February 2006 and March 2008;
(b)
The allocation by the State party of additional resources to improve standards
in places of detention, in particular with respect to access to health, activities, training and
living conditions.
C.
Main issues of concern and recommendations
Torture and ill-treatment
8.
The Committee is concerned about the numerous and consistent allegations of
widespread use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in police custody, corroborated
by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment in his report (A/HRC/10/44/Add.3, para. 82). The Committee is also concerned
about allegations of torture and ill-treatment being used to extract confessions or
information as evidence in criminal proceedings, despite legislative and organizational
changes made by the State party (arts. 2, 15 and 16).
As a matter of urgency, the State party should take immediate steps to prevent acts of
torture and ill-treatment and to announce that no forms of torture and ill-treatment
will be tolerated. The State party should, in particular, publicly and unambiguously
condemn practices of torture in all its forms, directing this especially to police and
prison staff in positions of command responsibility, accompanied by a clear warning
that any person committing such acts, as well as instigating, consenting or acquiescing
in torture or other ill-treatment, will be held personally responsible before the law for
such acts and subject to penalties proportional to the gravity of their crime.
9.
The Committee is particularly concerned about the numerous, ongoing and
consistent allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in temporary detention
facilities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Committee is also
concerned that, despite the State party’s plan to transfer responsibility over temporary
detention facilities to the Ministry of Justice in the context of implementation of the Plan of
Action for Human Rights for 2004–2008, the transfer did not take place and is now made
conditional upon the construction of eight new remand centres (arts. 2 and 16).
As recommended in the previous concluding observations of the Committee
(CAT/C/CR/30/7, para. 6 (i)), the State party should take immediate steps to fully
transfer the responsibility for temporary detention facilities from the Ministry of
Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice as a measure to prevent torture and illtreatment.
Fundamental legal safeguards
10.
The Committee is concerned about allegations that fundamental legal safeguards for
persons detained by the police, such as unrestricted access to lawyers and independent
doctors, are not being observed, particularly at the early stages of detention, despite existing
legal guarantees of articles 64 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the adoption
of the Law on State Legal Aid and of the Code of Offences. In addition, the Committee
notes with concern that there is no system of mandatory use of registers in all police
premises, and that, in practice, detainees are not always registered in police stations,
depriving them of an effective safeguard against acts of torture. Furthermore, medical
reports of independent doctors do not have the same evidentiary value as medical reports
issued by medical service staff of the places of detention (arts. 2 and 16).
The State party should:
GE.10-41468
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