Spain accused of ignoring torture victims

Fri Dec 3, 2004 02:48 PM GMT

By Daniel Flynn

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain frequently allows torture of illegal

immigrants and suspected ETA members by police to go unpunished and

does not grant appropriate compensation to victims, Amnesty

International says in a report.

In a study of 450 court cases between 1980 and 2004, the human rights

watchdog criticised the chronic slowness of Spain's courts and the

frequent impunity given to torturers.

"Internationally, everyone agrees there is a problem of torture and

mistreatment in Spain -- except successive Spanish governments," said

Esteban Beltran, Amnesty's director in Spain, presenting the

report "Spain: Ending the Double Injustice" on Friday.

"Amnesty is calling for an abrupt reversal of the practice of doling

out pardons," said Beltran, adding that dozens of officials had

received reprieves from torture convictions.

An Interior Ministry spokeswoman had no comment. The previous

conservative government, ousted by the Socialists in March, had

always denied such allegations.

While saying there was no systematic police torture in Spain, Amnesty

identified a growing problem of racist treatment of illegal

immigrants.

It also said that the practice of holding incommunicado suspected

members of Basque separatist group ETA and suspected al Qaeda

militants encouraged torture. EU-applicant Turkey had tighter rules

on holding prisoners incommunicado, Beltran said.

Despite the psychological damage inflicted by torture, Amnesty said

Spain's courts continued to compensate victims under guidelines for

traffic accidents.

In a third of cases, victims received less than 600 euros --

insufficient to cover the cost of medical treatment and therapy.

In the majority of the cases analysed by Amnesty, victims had to wait

more than seven years before receiving compensation and in some

instances it took longer than 15 years.

"In relation to compensating the victims of torture, Spain ranks very

poorly ... compared with other European countries," Beltran said,

citing the example of France which guarantees compensation even if

the guilty party cannot pay.

The rights group said victims were often not adequately compensated

because their torturers could not be identified.

The report cited the case of a Brazilian immigrant raped in police

custody in the Basque city of Bilbao. Although a court found in her

favour, her rapists were never identified because none of the

officers would cooperate.

Torture of political dissidents was widespread under the 1939-1975

dictatorship of Francisco Franco and concerns over Spain's human

rights record played a part in delaying its entry into the European

Union until 1986.