-7The Committee’s own findings confirm that investigations are still not carried out promptly or
expeditiously and often lack thoroughness. Further, the criteria for deciding to investigate cases under
the torture provision of Article 137 A of the Criminal Code appear unclear. Consequently, most cases
of alleged police ill-treatment are not criminally prosecuted and only very few result in criminal
sentences or even disciplinary sanctions. This picture is reinforced by the fact that none of the 21
outstanding cases of alleged serious police ill-treatment raised by the Internal Affairs Directorate of
the Hellenic Police in April 2014, including two cases examined in extenso by the CPT in 2015, has
resulted in a successful prosecution. These flaws in turn undermine any message of zero-tolerance
and foster a culture of impunity. It is important that all allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement
officials are investigated effectively, and that the Greek criminal justice system adopts a firm attitude
with regard to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.
Regrettably, the CPT’s standards as regards procedural safeguards against ill-treatment are still not
effectively implemented in Greece, as they do not for the most part apply in practice from the very
outset of a person’s deprivation of liberty (i.e. during the first hours of police custody, and particularly
during the initial questioning by security police officers). The authorities should notably clarify the
legislative provisions on the rights of notification of custody and access to a lawyer by extending their
application to criminal suspects as from the very outset of deprivation of liberty and ensure that these
rights become fully effective in practice.
As regards conditions of detention, most police establishments visited were totally unsuitable for
holding detained persons for periods of longer than 24 hours. In particular, conditions of detention
were appalling in the cell on the third floor of Omonia Police Station and in the basement cells and
the ground floor cell of Kypseli Police Station, and, in both of these stations, certain cells should not
be used for holding persons overnight. More generally, the current system of food provision for
persons deprived of their liberty by the police should be reviewed to ensure that they are all provided
with adequate and appropriate food, and the manifest lack of cleaning, hygiene and maintenance in
the police detention areas visited must be remedied. Further, the Greek authorities must put an end to
holding unaccompanied minors under “protective custody” in police stations, a practice which has
been found by the European Court of Human Rights to be degrading and unlawful. Steps must also
be taken to ensure that women and unaccompanied minors are never detained together with unrelated
adult men.
The CPT found that the material conditions in the Athens transfer centre for prisoners were appalling,
while those in the centre in Thessaloniki were poor. The Greek authorities should review the way in
which the two transfer centres operate and ensure that they are kept in a decent state of repair through
regular maintenance and cleaning. As a matter of principle, women with infants or in later stages of
pregnancy should never be detained in an environment such as that in the two transfer centres visited.
Further, medication should only be dispensed and administered by qualified health care staff.
As regards the vehicles used for transferring prisoners around the country, they were mostly out-dated
and hardly fit-for-purpose, and they presented a heightened security risk. The CPT found that up to
four persons were squeezed together in one of the filthy secure 1.2m² compartments in the transfer
coaches, their knees touching each other for periods of up to eleven hours, without always being
provided with food or water and with insufficient toilet stops; some prisoners alleged that they had to
urinate in a bottle in the presence of their co-detainees. Transferring women and their children in such
conditions, prone to intimidation and verbal abuse by male prisoners, is an abnegation of the State’s
duty of care towards them. The CPT considers that transfers of prisoners should always be carried
out in a humane, secure and safe manner and it recommends that the Greek authorities urgently review
the current arrangements in this regard. Further, the number of escort officers should be increased to
meet the transfer demands placed upon the escort service.