- 17 18. On the basis of the numerous allegations received by the CPT’s delegation from detained persons interviewed in several establishments, some of which were supported by medical and other evidence, it seems that officers of the DELTA motorcycle police unit have been repeatedly involved in incidents of excessive use of force during and after apprehension of criminal suspects. Persons claimed that they were exposed to physical and/or verbal ill-treatment, although they did not resist their apprehension or had already been brought under control (e.g. lying handcuffed on the ground). The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities urgently undertake a full and effective inquiry into the methods used by officers of the DELTA motorcycle police unit when apprehending persons, taking account of the principles set out in paragraphs 26 and 29 below. 19. Moreover, the CPT’s delegation received several consistent allegations of physical illtreatment in respect of police officers at the Security Departments of Agios Panteleimonas Police Station in Athens and of Demokratias Police Station in Thessaloniki. It also heard several allegations of ill-treatment by security police officers at the GADA (see paragraph 97) and in numerous other police stations across the country. The allegations concerned mainly slaps, punches, truncheon blows and kicks, but also verbal abuse and threats, including of a racist nature. For example: i. As regards Agios Panteleimonas Police Station, the delegation interviewed three detained foreign nationals in two different locations who alleged that they were repeatedly slapped, punched and kicked by motorcycle police officers10 in the elevator of the police station after their arrest in early March and early April 2015 respectively. The ill-treatment, including truncheon blows and kicks to the head, allegedly continued for some 20 minutes in the space used for taking fingerprints next to the lavatories at the premises of the Security Police located on the third floor, apparently for the purpose of trying to obtain a confession. Moreover, they all claimed that they were verbally abused, including insults of a racist nature linked to the colour of their skin.11 None of them has made a complaint about their alleged ill-treatment for fear of retribution. One of the three men described how, following his apprehension in early March, his face had been covered by a hood. Subsequently, police officers had stepped on his hand with their boots, struck him for several minutes with an iron stick on various parts of his body and banged his head against the plaster wall.12 When the CPT’s delegation visited the police station on 20 April, it found a large round head-shaped indentation in the wall next to the fingerprint corner located at about 1.5m above the floor which was consistent with this allegation. 10 11 12 Further allegations of ill-treatment by motorcycle police officers inside different police stations were also received by the delegation. One of the three persons also alleged that he had already been ill-treated for about one hour by the same four police officers from the motorcycle unit at the same place on the third floor of Agios Panteleimonas Police Station in a previous incident in November 2014. In addition to indiscriminate beatings, truncheon blows and kicks, he alleged that he had been doused with water and made to stand in front of a fan in the corridor at winter temperatures, and that he was forced to drink salt water. He alleged that he had sustained visible injuries. The CPT’s delegation was however unable to substantiate these claims, as the time of the alleged ill-treatment pre-dated the delegation’s visit by several weeks, and any lesion which might have been caused would almost certainly have healed in the meantime.