- 83 III. RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSIONS A. Police establishments 261. The CPT's delegation met a large number of persons who alleged that they had been illtreated while in police custody. These allegations emanated from both prisoners whom the delegation interviewed in prisons and persons in police custody at the time of the delegation's visit. It appeared that certain categories of criminal suspects (notably those suspected of drug-related offences) were particularly liable to be ill-treated and that in the case of persons suspected of very serious crimes, resort could be had on occasion to severe ill-treatment/torture. 262. Kicks, punches, slaps, stamping on feet, etc. were the most common type of ill-treatment alleged; further, a number of allegations of blows with the butt of a pistol or wooden sticks were heard. A few quite recent allegations were heard of an even more serious kind, in particular of falaka or the administration of electric shocks; such treatment was said to have been inflicted at the Athens and Thessaloniki Police Headquarters. Some of the persons making allegations of ill-treatment were found, on examination by medical members of the delegation, to display physical signs (eg. bruises, scars) consistent with their allegations. Further, a variety of unlabelled wooden sticks and batons which were quite different from a standard police truncheon were found on the premises of the Thessaloniki Police Headquarters; conflicting explanations were given for the presence of those objects. 263. As regards, more particularly, electric shocks, the most recent allegations referred to the use of a hand-held device. The delegation met separately several detained persons who alleged that they had recently received electric shocks via such a device in Athens or Thessaloniki Police Headquarters. Their descriptions of the device were concordant. Further, some of the persons concerned were found, on examination by medical members of the delegation, to bear marks consistent with their allegations. A hand-held device for delivering electric shocks was subsequently discovered in the personal locker of a police officer attached to the Thessaloniki Police Headquarters. 264. The sheer number of allegations of ill-treatment by the police and their consistency as regards both the types of ill-treatment inflicted and the categories of detained persons to whom they are applied are striking. These factors are alone sufficient to give rise to concern as regards the treatment received by persons detained by the police. That concern is reinforced by the findings of medical members of the CPT's delegation and by the on-site observations made in the course of certain visits. To this must be added a number of weaknesses noted in the area of formal safeguards against ill-treatment (notification of custody to a third party, access to a lawyer, etc.). In the light of all the information at its disposal, the CPT has been led to conclude that certain categories of persons deprived of their liberty by the police in Greece (in particular, persons arrested for drug-related offences; persons arrested for serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, etc.) run a significant risk of being ill-treated, and that on occasion resort might be had to methods of severe ill-treatment/torture.