E/CN.4/2003/24 page 26 23. Forty foreign minors between the ages of 13 and 17 living at the Fort Purísima Concepción centre in Melilla began a hunger strike on 4 March 2002 to protest the existing family reunion policy which, according to them, was ineffective since they did not have any family members waiting for them on the other side of the border. They were also protesting because they had not been granted residence permits upon the expiry of the nine-month period required by law, and against the ill-treatment that they had received from some of the centre’s supervision officers. 2. Replies from the Government of Spain 24. In a communication dated 14 November 2002, the Government of Spain transmitted the following information. 25. Mr. Boaventura Simão Vaz was detained when he, in the company of another Guinea-Bissau national, approached two plain clothes National Police officers, who were on duty. Boaventura Simão Vaz offered the officers tablets, which he showed them, for 500 pesetas. At that moment, the police officers showed him their badges and professional identity cards. As Mr. Simão attempted to run away, the officers intervened rapidly. A scuffle with the officers ensued, and one officer was injured when Mr. Simão grabbed him by the hair and threw him onto the road, causing lesions in the right occipital region, which necessitated emergency assistance. Mr. Simão and his compatriot were finally apprehended; this called for the use of minimum necessary force, since they put up strong resistance and began to shout and insult the officers. During Mr. Simão’s detention, a large knife was taken from him. The incident was dealt with in the appropriate manner, and the detainees were informed in writing of the reasons for their detention and of their constitutional rights. Mr. Simão had to be treated at San Carlos clinical hospital; after the medical report was issued, he was returned to prison. 26. In the case of Marta Elena Arce Salazar, the Government of Spain states that, on 2 April 2001, a National Police patrol on duty in Las Ramblas in Barcelona was approached by some young people who told the officers that they had been assaulted by a group of Maghrebis, who had taken a mobile phone belonging to one of the young people. A few moments later, the officers proceeded to identify a group of young people that met the description of the group that had committed the theft. The officers sought to determine whether any person in that group was carrying the stolen mobile phone. A few moments later, the victims of the theft arrived but were unable to identify any of the detained youths as the perpetrator of the attack. When the officers returned the documents to the youths, a woman approached them, shouting at them in an offensive manner and refusing to identify herself. The woman stood in the middle of the road, violently resisting the police’s attempts to subdue her and taking from her bag a personal defence spray with the intention of using it against the officer, which she did not succeed in doing. She began attacking the members of the patrol, until she was finally apprehended and identified as Marta Elena Arce Salazar. She was informed of her rights and transferred to Percamps hospital in Barcelona, where she was treated, along with one of the police officers, and the relevant medical reports were drawn up. She was then transferred to the Ciutat Vella police station. She was assigned a lawyer, Mr. José Luis Villar. The Bar Association later informed the police that the lawyer who had been assigned was ill, and that a lawyer - member of the Bar No. 19,632 - had been assigned ex officio. The treatment received by Marta Elena Arce Salazar was the same as that accorded to any other detainee.