conscientious objectors do not face harassment or prosecution. concerning prisoners in Larissa, Thessaloniki, Trikala and Komotini. TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT DISCRIMINATION - ROMA Allegations of torture or other ill-treatment of individuals, including refugees, asylumseekers and migrants during arrest or in immigration detention, persisted. On 27 September, five Syrian boys, aged between 12 and 16, were stopped by the police in central Athens while they were carrying toy guns as props on their way to perform in a play. The children said that they were beaten and forced to strip naked during their detention in the Omonoia police station. A criminal and a disciplinary investigation were ordered into the incident. The national NGO Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) reported that three Roma men were beaten by the police during their arrest and detention at a western Athens police station in October. One of the men suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized with serious injuries. Despite requests by the victims and GHM, a forensic examination was refused. GHM filed a complaint of torture and breach of duty with the Athens Prosecutor tasked with investigating hate crimes. During the same month, a court in Thessaloniki found 12 prison guards guilty of torturing and causing serious bodily harm to Ilia Karelli, an Albanian national found dead in his cell in Nigrita prison in March 2014. They were given prison sentences ranging between five and seven years. In December, Parliament adopted a law designating the Greek Ombudsperson as a national police complaints mechanism. The mechanism has the power to conduct its own investigations but its recommendations to the disciplinary bodies of law enforcement agencies are non-binding. In August, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about the situation of Roma in Greece including the obstacles they faced in accessing basic services such as education and housing; and being subjected to frequent identity checks and police harassment. RACISM Hate-motivated attacks continued to be documented against people belonging to vulnerable groups including refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. In July, a squat providing shelter for refugees in Athens was targeted in an arson attack by members of a far-right group. The perpetrators had not been identified by the end of the year. In November, suspected far-right extremists attacked refugees in Souda camp on Chios Island, injuring at least two. Two activists who tried to assist the refugees were also attacked and subsequently hospitalized. A criminal investigation into the incidents began. At the end of November, a court in Piraeus upheld on appeal a first-instance decision which found four men guilty of abducting, robbing and causing serious bodily harm to Egyptian migrant worker Walid Taleb in 2012. The trial of leaders and members of the Golden Dawn, a far-right political party, who were charged with the murder of Pavlos Fyssas in 2013 and the founding of a criminal organization, continued at the end of the year. PRISON CONDITIONS RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE Prison conditions remained a cause of serious concern. Greece was found to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of poor prison conditions and/or lack of effective remedies to challenge such conditions in nine cases In May, the Ministry of Justice established a preparatory committee to draft a bill allowing for the legal recognition of the gender identity of transgender people through an administrative process without the requirement to undergo gender reassignment 172 Amnesty International Report 2016/17