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Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee visits Germany

09.12.2005 - A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a visit to Germany from 20 November to 2 December 2005. It was the CPT's fifth visit to this country.

In the course of the visit, the CPT's delegation followed up a number of issues examined during previous visits, in particular, the fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment offered to persons deprived of their liberty by the police and the situation of immigration detainees. The delegation also examined the treatment of juvenile prisoners as well as of patients placed in psychiatric establishments. Further, at Berlin-Tegel Prison, the delegation examined the conditions of detention in the Unit for secure custody (Sicherungsverwahrung) and the establishment’s high-security unit.

The CPT's delegation held meetings with Brigitte ZYPRIES, Federal Minister of Justice, Alfred HARTENBACH, Junior Minister (Federal Ministry of Justice), Christoph FLÜGGE, Secretary of State of Justice (Berlin), Ulrich FREISE (Secretary of State of the Interior (Berlin), Jürgen OEHLERKING, Secretary of State of Justice (Lower Saxony), Paul Uwe SÖKER, Secretary of State of Justice (Saxony-Anhalt), Thomas PLEYE, Secretary of State of the Interior (Saxony-Anhalt), and Bärbel FREUDENBERG-PILSTER, Secretary of State of Health and Social Affairs (Saxony-Anhalt). The delegation also met senior officials from the Federal Ministries of Justice, the Interior, Family and Defence, as well as various Ministries of the Länder visited by the delegation.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

• Silvia CASALE, President of the CPT, Head of delegation (British)
•  Zdeněk HÁJEK (Czech)
• Lätif HÜSEYNOV (Azerbaijani)
• Renate KICKER (Austrian)
• Veronica PIMENOFF (Finnish)

They were supported by Michael NEURAUTER and Muriel ISELI of the CPT's Secretariat, and assisted by two experts: Timothy HARDING, Director of the University Institute of Forensic Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland, and Clive MEUX, consultant forensic psychiatrist, Oxford, United Kingdom.

The delegation visited the following places:

Baden-Württemberg

• Police Headquarters (Polizeipräsidium), Heidelberg
• Nordbaden Psychiatric Centre, Wiesloch

Berlin

• Regional Police Headquarters, Wedekindstrasse
• Federal Police Station, Central Railway Station (Zoologischer Garten)
• Tegel Prison (Unit for secure custody (Sicherungverwahrung) and high-security unit)

Brandenbourg

• Police Headquarters (Polizeipräsidium), Frankfurt on the Oder- Nuhnenstrasse
• Police Station, Frankfurt on the Oder-Halbe Stadt
• Detention Centre for Foreigners, Eisenhüttenstadt

Hamburg

• Police Headquarters (Polizeipräsidium), Hamburg-Winterhude
• Fuhlsbüttel Prison (Unit for immigration detainees)
• Hamburg Remand Prison (Units for immigration detainees)

Lower Saxony

• Police Station Hameln-Lohstrasse
• Hameln Juvenile Prison

Saxony-Anhalt

• Halle Prison No. 1

Schleswig-Holstein

• Neustadt Psychiatric Hospital ("Psychatrium GRUPPE")

Thuringia

• Police Station, Weimar (Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse)
• Detached Unit of Ichtershausen Juvenile Prison, Weimar

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