- 15 23. At the end of its visit, the CPT's delegation informed the Greek authorities of its findings and requested that an inquiry be carried out without delay into the methods used by detectives at the Athens and Thessaloniki Police Headquarters when interrogating suspects. The delegation's request was complied with, and a detailed report dealing inter alia with this matter drawn up by the Ministry of Public Order was forwarded to the CPT by letter of 14 October 1993. Pages 22 to 32 of the report deal specifically with the Athens and Thessaloniki Police Headquarters, and it is in particular stated that a special enquiry carried out following the delegation's observations had revealed no instances of ill-treatment of detained persons by these police services during the last five years. In those rare cases where formal complaints of ill-treatment had been made (including three complaints of illtreatment by electric shocks), the police officers concerned had been cleared by administrative and judicial enquiries. In this connection, the CPT must underline that the fact that few formal complaints of illtreatment are recorded is not necessarily a reliable guide as to the degree of risk of ill-treatment. Detained persons who have been ill-treated will often hesitate before seeking to commence proceedings, out of fear of further prejudicing their legal situation or in the belief that such a step would be unlikely to prove successful. Numerous persons met by the delegation in the course of its visit to Greece stated that they had been discouraged by the police and/or by their own lawyer from pursuing a complaint of ill-treatment, it being argued that it would not be in their best interests (cf. also paragraph 30). 24. As regards more specifically the items discovered by the CPT's delegation at Thessaloniki Police Headquarters, the CPT notes the results of the Administrative Enquiry under oath in relation to the electric shock device found in a locker. The explanation concerning the presence of this object and its use corresponds broadly with that provided to members of the delegation by the police officer in question, when they met him shortly after the object's discovery. The CPT believes it is not necessary for it to comment upon that explanation. However, it should be said that the supporting considerations set out under points e) and f), on pages 30 and 31 of the Ministry of Public Order's report, are - given the circumstances under which the object was found as well as the test of the object which was made - not convincing. Similarly, the explanation provided concerning the presence of the wooden sticks and batons found by the delegation is not credible; one of these objects was indeed a table leg, but the others could by no stretch of the imagination be taken for old items of furniture which had inadvertently been left behind by cleaning staff. 25. It is concluded at the end of the report drawn up by the Ministry of Public Order that "the Committee's observations in respect of investigation methods, torture and ill-treatment are without foundation and it is also a fact that questions of torture or ill-treatment of persons cannot arise in respect of Greece .....". In the CPT's opinion, that conclusion is untenable.