During the visit, the CPT’s delegation heard a remarkably large number of credible and consistent allegations of police ill-treatment in the context of the post-election events in April 2009. In its report, the CPT recommends, together with other measures, that the methods used by members of the Special-Purpose Police Force “Fulger” and other police forces involved in the apprehension of persons in the context of crowd-control situations be subject to closer and more effective independent supervision.

As regards investigations into cases possibly involving ill-treatment in the context of the post-election events, the delegation examined the overall investigative approach as well as a number of specific cases, with a view to assessing the effectiveness of the action taken by the competent authorities.

The report concludes that in many cases prosecutors had not taken all reasonable steps in good time to secure evidence and had failed to make genuine efforts to identify those responsible. The CPT recommends that the competent authorities adopt a more proactive, co-ordinated and comprehensive approach in order to meet the criteria of an “effective” investigation as established by the European Court of Human Rights.

The CPT also recommends, in the medium term, the setting-up of an agency specialised in the investigation of cases possibly involving ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, which is fully independent of both law enforcement and prosecuting authorities.

The CPT’s visit report is available on the Committee's website at http://www.cpt.coe.int.