No cases of use of torture in order to extract information that can be used as proofs in trials had taken place in the remand centers of the Ministry of the Interior in 2009-2011. The Ministry issued the statement in reaction to a report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report says the remand prisoners in Moldova are handcuffed, punched and kneed, suffocated with plastic bags and beaten with nightsticks onto legs and soles to confess their guilt. The maltreatment takes place during preliminary interrogations performed by policemen in offices of commissariats or at the detained person’s home. In its statement, the Ministry says that one of the institution’s top priorities is not to allow cases of torture in the remand units and to ensure decent detention conditions. The first accomplishment in this respect is the renovation of cells in remand units of police commissariats and the reopening of four remand units in 2011. In order to avoid the use of torture or inhuman treatment, there is implemented a project to create an audio-video supervision system at local police subdivisions. It is carried out in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program. Last April, such a system was installed on a trial basis at the police commissariat in Riscani district of Chisinau municipality. In 2011, the Council of Europe helped reconstruct the remand center of the General Police Commissariat. As a result, the accommodation capacity of the center was decreased from 78 to 54 places, but the created conditions are in accordance with the requirements of the EU and the Antitorture Committee. Currently, the Ministry of the Interior manages 39 remand centers. Seven of them suspended work owing to the lack of decent detention conditions.