- 10 II. FACTS FOUND DURING THE VISIT AND ACTION PROPOSED A. Law enforcement agencies 1. Preliminary remarks 10. The CPT’s delegation visited a number of establishments under the authority of the Ministry of Public Order (police headquarters and stations, transfer centres, detention facilities for foreign nationals2), certain of them for the first time. It also visited establishments of the Coast Guard’s Port Police, under the authority of the Ministry of Merchant Marine and special holding facilities for aliens under the joint responsibility of the Prefectures and the Ministry of Public Order. 11. The rules governing detention of criminal suspects by the police have not changed since the visit by the CPT in 2001 (cf. CPT/Inf (2002) 31, paragraph 10). The Committee was, however, pleased to note the circular by the Greek Chief of Police of 4 July 2003 on “treatment and rights of persons detained by Police authorities”. The circular recalls the legal obligations upon the police to protect fundamental human rights of persons deprived of their liberty, and makes specific reference to both Greek and international law. More particularly, the circular recalls explicitly the prohibition on the use of violence, the requirement to inform the detainee of the reasons for detention, the posting of information on detainees rights while in detention (including special efforts for persons not understanding Greek). The circular also reiterates the right of detainees to communicate by telephone with their relatives or other persons of their choice, and to receive visits from inter alia family, NGOs, international committees and, specifically points to the absolute right of contact with lawyers. In addition, the circular reminds police officers of the serious criminal and disciplinary charges they will face for acts of violence against detainees. Finally, police officers are requested to be more sensitive in their behaviour towards “vulnerable” detainees, which include minors, asylum seekers and foreign nationals in general. The circular is evidence of the resolve by the senior police command that persons deprived of their liberty should always enjoy the rights to which they are entitled. Regrettably, the findings of the CPT’s delegation in the course of the 2005 visit highlighted that many of the above rights were not respected in practice and, moreover, that there continues to be a widespread use of violence by the police against persons deprived of their liberty. 2 It should be noted that foreign nationals could be held as irregular immigrants in administrative detention at police stations, police holding facilities and “special holding facilities for aliens”, the last-mentioned being operated by the Ministry of Public Order in collaboration with the Prefectures (at the time of the visit). The CPT’s delegation visited these various types of facilities during its visit. The “special holding facilities for aliens” are examined under Section II.A.6 of this report.