-8- II. FACTS FOUND DURING THE VISIT AND ACTION PROPOSED 1. Preliminary remarks 8. The legal framework governing detention in the various establishments under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior has remained unaltered since the CPT’s previous visit to Greece in 2007: for irregular migrants, the legal basis for detention is to be found in the 2005 Aliens Act and for criminal suspects in the Code of Criminal Procedure3. For both irregular migrants and criminal suspects, the applicable legal safeguards are formulated in Protocol No 4803/22/44 on the “Treatment and rights of persons detained by the police authorities”. 9. The CPT was informed that on 1 January 2009, the border guards will become an integral part of the Hellenic Police Force. At present, the border guards are a paramilitary force tasked, in particular, with the apprehension and detention of irregular migrants and traffickers in human beings, operating under the responsibility of officers of the Hellenic Police. Currently, border guards have received not more than two months training and cannot be promoted into the police force without first passing though the regular police schooling. The CPT would like to be informed about the practical implications of the planned integration of members of the border guards into the police force and, in particular, whether border guards will be considered as fully-fledged police officers. Further, the Committee would like to know whether additional training will be provided to border guards. 2. Ill-treatment 10. In the course of the visit, the CPT’s delegation received a considerable number of allegations of ill-treatment of persons held by law enforcement officials under suspicion of having committed a criminal offence. The alleged ill-treatment consisted mostly of kicks, punches and blows with batons, often inflicted during questioning. Certain allegations also referred to the use of excessive force at the time of arrest. In addition, a few persons claimed that they had been threatened with various objects; for instance, at the Thessaloniki Monasteriou Police Station a man alleged that during a search of his house a police officer had threatened him by holding a hot electric iron close to his head. Another person claimed that, at the Omonia Square Police Station, he had been forced to undress and was then ridiculed by police officers. 3 See CPT/ Inf (2006) 41, paragraph 48 and CPT/ Inf (2002) 31, paragraph 10, respectively.