End incommunicado detention in Spain

Spain has one of the strictest detention regimes in the European Union

Spanish law allows terrorism suspects to be held incommunicado for up to 13 days. Incommunicado detainees have no effective access to a lawyer or to a doctor of their choice. Their family is not informed that they have been detained.

Many detainees held incommunicado report that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated. The authorities rarely investigate their allegations.

Mohammed Fahsi was arrested near Barcelona in 2006 on suspicion of terrorism-related offences. He was held incommunicado for four days, during which time his family had no idea where he was.

Mohammed Fahsi says he was blindfolded at all times and insulted and threatened by Civil Guard officers. He said that while in his cell he was forced to remain standing with his hands on the wall, or to do press-ups to the point of exhaustion. Every time he tried to sit down a Civil Guard officer would make him stand again and he says he was subjected to sleep-deprivation techniques.

During interrogations, he was told his wife and children would be sent out to the desert in Morocco and he would never see them again. A state-appointed lawyer arrived to represent Mohammed Fahsi just before he was taken to court, but he was not allowed to speak to his client. A doctor examined him but did not follow up on his claims that he was being tortured.

More than three years later, Mohammed Fahsi remains in detention awaiting trial. His complaints of torture were never investigated.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Spain
• incommunicado
• detention
• mohammed
• fahsi
• amnesty
• international
• counter
• terror
• with
• justice

[cmadison93]

Even if the man had done something to get arrested (which the commentators below have failed to elaborate on, just merely stating that the police had 'good reason') that is still no excuse for the abuse going on.

[PLANKt0ne1]

buulllllshiiiit....sorry Mohammad...you must have done something to deserve ti and if you dont like this go to Morocco, Egypt, Iran!

What did just happen in Tunisia? Wake up muslims! Europe is this way, take it or leave it and stop wining.

Spain gives rights to inmigrants, a lot more than they get in their own countries

[asgardthor123]

well, if you muslims think that our European nations are abusive, go to your own country and get back to reality

[siempreviva49]

They must have had good reason to arrest him. Maybe you should check out civil rights and liberties in muslim countries. Perhaps you will be surprised to find out that there is no need for a lawyer or a trial because they have already been tortured and executed.

[gorkaazk]

Have you got the right to be in silent?

Why do the spanish police need so many days the prisioners incommunicados?

[ChahfikSamir]

One thing is for sure is that incommunicado is not something that Spain will be proud of in the future, 13 days without no access to a doctor! In this circonstances things can go real sour for the detainee's health.

[theTeabag]

Perhaps you have difficulties thinking.

The analogy is that in both cases legal nuances and gaps enable authorities to abuse their power in barbaric way. In both cases innocent ppl are at risk.

How hard is this?

[manesco73]

Perhaps you have difficulties reading: The Spanish law is applicable only under a judge order, not just because a police feels someone is suspicious. It has a limit of 5 days after which the suspect has access to his own lawyer, How this is related to your example I faile to see. So no I dont feel responsible for Muslin and American soldiers torturing suspects In Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, etc. I guess Muslims could ask for more democracy in their countries, but this is up to them really.

[theTeabag]

In Iraq when suspicion fell that someone in a group of ppl might be an enemy americans would torture all of them, including kids. This meant:

-rapes (on minors too)

-beating wounds with a metal stick,

-Tying ropes to the detainees' legs or penises and dragging them across the floor

-Pouring phosphoric acid on detainees etc.

It was all possible because of naive ppl like You who constitute "public opinion"

[Jaunnield]

Spain does not recognise Human Rights...openly!