£DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

@TORTURE OF

PROFESSOR FELIPE DE JESUS MEDRANO GARCIA

MARCH 1992AI INDEX: AMR 27/03/92

DISTR: SC/CO

Amnesty International is concerned about the alleged torture of Professor Felipe de Jesús Medrano García by members of the police during his detention at the Palacio de la Policía Nacional, the National Police headquarters, in January 1992.

Felipe Medrano, who is Director of the Unidad Promoción Cultural, Department of Cultural Promotion at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, said that he was arrested at his home by members of the Departamento de Falsificaciones de la Policía Nacional, Forgery Investigation Department of the National Police on 16 January 1992. He was allegedly taken to

the Palacio de la Policía Nacional where he was held on forgery charges until 24 January when the charges were dropped and he was released.

Professor Medrano alleged that during his detention he was subjected to torture in the presence of police officers and other detainees. In an open letter to President Joaquín Balaguer, published in the Dominican newspaper El Nacional on 13 February 1992, Felipe Medrano stated that the police captain in charge of investigations in the Forgery Department:

"ordered [the police] to lay me face down on the floor of his office and to handcuff me, before beating me harshly and repeatedly with a wooden bat on the buttocks and the lower back... While carrying out a preliminary interrogation, a first lieutenant ... with horrifying sadism, beat me around the left ear with a piece of rubber, provoking laughter from the other policemen present, as if it were a comical show."

"ordenó [a los policías] que me acostaran boca abajo en el piso de su oficina, y que me esposaran las manos, golpeándome con un bate de madera, severa y repetidas veces en los glúteos y la parte inferior de la columna vertebral... Mientras se me practicaba el interrogatorio preliminar un Primer Teniente ... con un sadismo espeluznante me golpeaba alegremente la oreja izquierda con una goma, provocando carcajadas en los demás policías presentes, como si se tratara de un espectáculo de humor."

In a medical certificate dated 31 January 1992, the medical director of the Hospital Dr. Dario Contreras in Santo Domingo, the capital, states that Professor Medrano suffered severe injuries to the buttocks and the lower back.

Professor Medrano fears that his public denunciation of his alleged torture, including the names of his alleged torturers, may elicit reprisals from members of the police.

The allegations have reportedly been denounced by Professor Medrano to the President of the Dominican Republic, Joaquín Balaguer, to the Procurador General, Attorney General, to the Fiscal del Distrito Nacional, National District Attorney, to the Ministro del Interior y de la Policía, Minister of the Interior and the Police, to the Jefe de la Policía Nacional, Chief of the National Police and to the Presidente de la Junta Investigadora de la Policía Nacional, President of the Investigating Body of the National Police.

INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 8DJ, UNITED KINGDOM