1.3 Juan Fernando Teran Jijon was arrested on 7 March 1986 in Quito by members of an antisubversive police unit known as Escuadron Volante; according to the author, he was about to visit a relative. He claims to have been kept incommunicado for 5 days, shackled and blindfolded, subjected to physical and mental torture, and forced to sign more than 10 blank sheets of paper. He was then transferred to the Garcia Moreno prison. The report of a medical examination carried out in the infirmary of the prison on 13 March 1986 records haematomas and skin lesions all over his body. 1.4 The author was charged with participation in the crime of bank robbery, perpetrated on 7 March 1986 against the Banco de Pichincha and the Caja de Credito Agricola of Sangolqui. He denies any involvement in the offence. 1.5 On 27 January 1987 the Tribunal Segundo Penal de Pichincha convicted and sentenced him to one year of imprisonment. Although this term was fully served on 7 March 1987 and the Tribunal ordered his release on 9 March 1987, he was not released but instead reindicted, allegedly on the same facts and for the same offence. 1.6 With regard to the issue of exhaustion of domestic remedies, Mrs. Teran Jijon states that she instituted an action for amparo, appealed to the Tribunal de Garantias Constitucionales and to the National Congress. On 18 March 1988, her son was released, pending the adjudication of other criminal proceedings, involving charges of illegal possession of firearms. On 22 August 1989, the Fourth Chamber of the Superior Court declared the charges null and void; it found that the reindictment of the author in January 1987 violated article 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which no one shall be tried or convicted more than once for the same offence. Complaint 2. It is claimed that Juan Teran Jijon is a victim of violations by Ecuador of article 7 of the Covenant, because he was subjected to torture and illtreatment following his arrest, partly in order to extract a confession from him and in order to force him to sign blank sheets of paper, about whose subsequent use he was kept in the dark; the author adds that he was denied access to counsel. It is further claimed that he was a victim of a violation of article 9, paragraph 1, because he was subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention, since he allegedly was not involved in the bank robbery; in this context, it is submitted that the police report incriminating him was manipulated by the Ministry responsible for the police (Ministerio de Gobierno y Policia). The author further alleges a violation of article 9, paragraph 3, because he was not brought promptly before a judge. The fact of having been reindicted for the same facts and the same offence is said to amount to a violation of the principle ne bis in idem. State party's information and observations 3.1 The State party contends that on 7 March 1986 Juan Teran Jijon, together with a group of armed men belonging to the terrorist movement "AJfaro vive", robbed the bank of Pichincha and the Caja de Credito Agricola of Sangolqui, -262-