- 14 b. information gathered in the course of the 2009 visit 17. In the course of the 2009 visit, the CPT’s delegation once again received many allegations of ill-treatment of detained persons by officers of the Greek Police.8 The allegations concerned primarily kicks, slaps, punches and blows, with batons and other objects, including on the soles of feet and on fingers, mainly during questioning by the Security Police, but also upon apprehension. In certain instances, the ill-treatment alleged was of such severity that it could be considered as amounting to torture. The CPT is particularly concerned by an allegation received concerning members of the Serres Security Police, who were said to have placed a plastic bag over the head of a criminal suspect during questioning, and by alleged threats of rape made by police officers, based in Thessaloniki, similar to the incident described in the report on the 2007 visit.9 In the 2009 case, a young man claimed that at the time of his apprehension he was threatened with rape and that later, in the police station, he was spread-eagled against a wash basin with his shorts pulled down while a police officer stood astride him and simulated having anal intercourse. 18. In a number of cases, the delegation’s medical doctors found that the persons concerned displayed injuries which were consistent with their allegations of ill-treatment. By way of illustration, the CPT will refer to the following four cases: Case 1 A detained person interviewed at Patras Gounari Street Police Station alleged to have been punched in the eye and nose on 19 September 2009 by a police officer after having been apprehended. The man, inter alia, displayed purple bruising and swelling around the right eye consistent with his allegation and a hospital X-ray revealed a nasal fracture. On the right side of the chin, there was an excoriation (1 cm in diameter) and on the left side a linear excoriation (2 cm in length), both fresh. The man also had a stitched wound on the back of his head which he said had been caused when he had hit the ground after having been punched. Case 2 On 20 September 2009, at Thessaloniki Monasteriou Police Station, the CPT’s delegation met a woman who alleged that some 48 hours earlier during transport to the police station, she was struck several times with a baton on the right hand and forearm, while handcuffed behind the back. This woman had extensive purplish bruising extending over the outer side of the right hand, wrist and forearm and on palpation displayed tenderness over the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones. 8 9 In 2008, the border guards were integrated into the Greek Police and any reference in the report to “police officers” should be read to encompass border guards unless otherwise stated. See CPT/Inf (2008) 3, paragraph 12.