88 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 policeman in question was off duty at the time and claims to have had only four lessons in the use of firearms. On 11 April another officer was convicted of negligent homicide and given a one year suspended prison sentence for the fatal shooting of a man during a police chase in 2005. The court considered as an attenuating factor the fact that the officer had never been trained in the use of firearms. AI has repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of adequate training of law enforcement officers in this area. In April the police inspectorate (Inspecção Geral da Administração Interna, IGAI) produced its findings in two cases of police shootings, one of which was fatal, in Porto in October 2006. The first incident occurred on 3 October when one man was killed and another gravely injured during a police chase of a car carrying four young men. A police officer fired five shots at the vehicle, allegedly aiming for the tyres but killing one occupant and injuring another. The police officer was charged before a Magistrates Court in Porto on 4 October with attempted homicide and reckless homicide, and immediately freed to await trial on the grounds that he had been acting in the course of duty with no homicidal intent. He was not suspended from duty. The IGAI investigation concluded that the actions of the police involved had been excessive and recommended that a disciplinary procedure be opened. In the second case, also involving a man who was shot during a police chase, the IGAI found that the officer had acted in legitimate self defence and recommended the closure of the criminal investigation underway. In June the Office of the Public Prosecutor formally accused five police officers of participating in the ill-treatment of a suspect named Leonor Cipriano in October 2004 during interrogations. Three officers were accused of torture, one was accused of failing to prevent the ill-treatment and one for falsification of official documents. The police trade union, the Association of Criminal Investigators (Associação Sindical dos Funcionários de Investigação Criminal, ASFIC) declared in May that they Amnesty International considered the case “closed” and had previously accused the Public Prosecutor of acting in bad faith. The trade union argued that there was a lack of evidence to support the prosecution. On 29 May the seven prison officers accused of assaulting Albino Libânio, an inmate of Lisbon prison, on 11 November 2003, were acquitted on the grounds of lack of evidence (see AI Index: EUR 38/001/2004, and AI Index: POL 10/001/2005). The acquittal came despite a report into the incident by the prison services inspectorate (Serviço de Auditoria e Inspecção – Delegaçãao Sul) and by the IGAI which concluded that Albino Libânio had indeed been assaulted by prison officers as he had alleged. An appeal was launched on 21 June to the Court of Appeal (Tribunal da Relação de Lisboa) and was pending at the end of the period under review. Visit of Committee for the Prevention of Torture On 25 January, the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published reports on its ad hoc visit to Portugal in 2002 and on its fourth periodic visit to Portugal in 2003. The reports highlighted numerous cases of alleged police ill-treatment. The majority of allegations of ill-treatment occurred at the time of arrest, but some occurred within police detention facilities. The CPT noted that the main problems were the insufficient training of police officers and the lack of an independent and impartial body to investigate complaints made against the police. It recommended better training and selection procedures, and that complaints be investigated by persons independent of the forces implicated in the incident, with guarantees of efficiency and speed in the inquiries. The 2002 ad hoc visit focused on the situation at Oporto Central Prison. In previous visits to this establishment, the CPT had found the prison overcrowded, AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007