- 84 265. To combat this problem, the CPT has first and foremost stressed the importance of education on human rights questions and of adequate training in modern investigation techniques for police officers. Further, it has been recommended that particular attention be given during the training of police officers to the acquisition and development of interpersonal communication skills. 266. The CPT has also emphasised that one of the most effective means of preventing illtreatment by police officers lies in the diligent examination by the prosecuting authorities and the courts of all complaints of such treatment brought before them and, where appropriate, the imposition of a suitable penalty. In this connection, the Committee has requested specific information on the action taken by public prosecutors and courts. Similarly, the importance of the role to be played by doctors appointed by the State to carry out forensic tasks has been underlined, given the considerable weight which the findings of such doctors carry in legal proceedings. A number of remarks have been made with a view to developing the contribution of State forensic medical services in Greece to the examination of cases involving allegations of ill-treatment by the police. 267. Various recommendations designed to strengthen the formal safeguards against the illtreatment of persons detained by the police (eg. recognition of the right to inform, without delay, a relative or third party of one's situation, and of the right to be examined by a doctor of one's own choice) have been made. Particular mention should be made of the right of persons detained by the police to have access to a lawyer, a right which an "accused" already possesses under the Code of Criminal Procedure. It became clear during the visit that, in practice, a person arrested by the police is not entitled to have access to a lawyer until he is charged with an offence by the police, an event which might occur up to 24 hours after the time of arrest. The period immediately following deprivation of liberty is when the risk of intimidation and ill-treatment is the greatest; the CPT has therefore recommended that a detainee's right to have access to a lawyer (albeit, exceptionally, not necessarily his own lawyer) be guaranteed as from the very outset of his detention by the police. The CPT has also recommended that the Greek police force be provided with a formal code of conduct for interrogations, setting out in detail the procedure to be followed on a number of specific points. 268. Conditions of detention in the police establishments visited varied from adequate to extremely poor. The conditions in the two cells at Larissa Police Headquarters and in two cells in the basement of Thessaloniki Police Headquarters were such that the CPT's delegation recommended that they be taken out of service immediately, pending the necessary improvements. The CPT welcomes the Greek authorities' prompt compliance with that recommendation. The CPT has made a series of detailed recommendations concerning conditions of detention in each of the establishments visited and, more generally, has recommended that conditions of detention in police establishments throughout Greece be reviewed in order to ensure that they meet certain general criteria identified by the Committee.