Report says human rights improved in North
RUC detectives were captured on film banging a man’s head off a wall during interrogation, a European report revealed today.
Overall, the report said standards of human rights had improved in the North over the year, but more could and should be done.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and inhuman Treatment's annual report - on the standard of treatment of detainees by police in the North -could be summed up as "improved but could do better".
In 1993, the same panel issued a harshly critical report. This year it welcomed the closure of Castlereagh interrogation centre and found that the video and sound taping of interviews had reduced complaints.
However, it also deplored one filmed incident in which a man was wrestled to the ground, his head was banged off a wall and detectives lifted a desk, hit him with it and held it down on top of him for nearly a minute. Other detainees complain of a technique where officers stand on the back of their legs as they kneel on the floor and other detectives are said to be unduly abusive, insulting and intimidating.
