- 11 II. FACTS FOUND DURING THE VISIT AND ACTION PROPOSED A. Law enforcement agencies 1. Preliminary remarks 9. The CPT’s delegation visited a number of police establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Public Order (police headquarters and stations, transfer centres, detention facilities for aliens), certain of them for the first time. It also visited two establishments of the Coast Guard’s Port Police, under the authority of the Ministry of Merchant Marine, and one Customs detention facility, under the authority of the Ministry of Finance. 10. The rules concerning detention of criminal suspects by the police have been summarised in the reports on previous CPT visits2; those rules apply equally to other agencies, such as the Coast Guard and Customs authority, to the extent that they exercise law enforcement powers involving the possibility of depriving persons of their liberty. Other categories of persons who may be held in police detention facilities include foreigners awaiting removal, persons committed to prison who have been transferred to attend court proceedings or are in transit to other establishments, persons serving sentences involving up to 30 days of detention and persons under protective custody (cf. responses of the Greek authorities to previous visit reports, in particular CPT/Inf (2001) 19, page 27). The new aliens law3 has brought about certain specific changes as regards detention under immigration rules. The most salient development concerns the new three-month limit on detention by administrative decision of foreigners awaiting removal. The law also stipulates that detention orders can be the subject of judicial review and that appeals against removal orders entail their suspension.4 2 The detention of a criminal suspect on the sole authority of law enforcement officials may last for a maximum of 24 hours. During this initial period, a public prosecutor may confirm the detention and refer the case to the competent judge; in general, detained persons are brought before the prosecutor prior to such a decision being taken. Within three days thereafter, the suspect must be brought before the competent judge who must, within a further two days, release the person or remand him in prison. In consequence, a criminal suspect may remain in the custody of a law enforcement agency for a maximum of six days following arrest (cf. CPT/Inf (94) 20, paragraph 14 and CPT/Inf (2001) 18, Part I, paragraph 12). 3 Law 2910, of 26 April 2001, on the entry and residence of aliens in Greek territory. 4 Cf. in particular Articles 44, 48 and 50 of Law 2910, of 26 April 2001.