Torture Rife in Equatorial Guinea, UN Confirms

The Equatoguinean opposition has all along maintained that the practise of torture remains

systematic and fierce in the country. Today, the UN finally was let to confirm this.

The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment, Manfred Nowak, reported that torture is used by police forces against

detainees – political prisoners as well as suspects of common crimes – to extract confessions or information and sometimes as punishment, intimidation or just to extort money.

The police abuse reported to him and corroborated by expert medical analysis included beatings to the soles of feet and buttocks with batons, solid rubberised cables and wooden bars; electric shocks with starter cables attached to different parts of the body with alligator clips; various forms of suspension with hands and feet tied together for prolonged periods and beating victims while they swing back-and-forth.