CAT/C/68/D/818/2017
United Nations
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Distr.: General
15 January 2020
English
Original: Spanish
English, French and Spanish only
Committee against Torture
Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the
Convention, concerning communication No. 818/2017*, **
Communication submitted by:
E.L.G. (represented by counsel, Valentín J.
Aguilar Villuendas)
Alleged victim:
The complainant
State party:
Spain
Date of complaint:
23 March 2016 (initial submission)
Document references:
Decision taken pursuant to rule 115 of the
Committee’s rules of procedure, transmitted to
the State party on 5 April 2017 (not issued in
document form)
Date of adoption of decision:
26 November 2019
Subject matter:
Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment in police custody
Procedural issues:
Incompatibility ratione materiae, lack of
substantiation, exhaustion of domestic remedies
Substantive issues:
Torture; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;
conditions of detention; lack of a full and
impartial judicial process
Articles of the Convention:
1, 2, 11, 12, 13 and 16
1.
The complainant is E.L.G., a national of Spain, born in 1979. She claims that the
State party has violated her rights under articles 1, 12, 13 and 16 of the Convention.
Although the complainant does not explicitly invoke articles 2 and 11 of the Convention,
the communication also appears to raise issues related to those articles. The complainant is
represented by counsel. The State party has made the declaration pursuant to article 22 of
the Convention, effective from 21 October 1987.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant lives in Córdoba, Spain. She alleges that, on 27 January 2013, she
was walking through the train station in Córdoba on her way home when she was stopped
by four officials (three men and one woman) in plain clothes who, claiming to be police
officers, asked to search her bag. When they found a wallet that was not hers in it, they
* Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-eighth session (11 November–6 December 2019).
** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication:
Essadia Belmir, Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu,
Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón and Sébastien Touzé.
GE.20-00488 (E)
030220 030220