French police 'brutal'

PARIS (Reuter) - A European commission on the prevention of torture cited numerous allegations of police brutality in France and urged the government to tighten procedures to protect suspects. The Council of Europe commission said suspects ran a 'not inconsiderable risk' of being mistreated while in police detention because there was no code of conduct on interrogations and no requirement to have a doctor or lawyer present.

'Our delegation has heard a rather large number of allegations of more or less serious mistreatment by the police . . . punches, slaps, being hit on the head with telephone directories, psychological pressure and so on,' the commission said.