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Stopping the torture trade
6
They were extremely painful as they were worn without
shoes and socks, and used to cut into my skin and leave
scars which lasted for months.”
In a diary he smuggled out of prison in cigarette packets,
Patrick Foster recorded his surprise that the chains in which he
was held were made in England:
“the shackles and cuffs in this establishment, as in every
other incidentally, were both made by Hiatt in England;
somewhat ironic...” 3
In January 1995, in response to Patrick Foster’s allegations, a
Hiatts director stated:
“We’ve stopped making leg cuffs and those were dispatched
as hand cuffs... I don’t have to dictate or tell
anybody what to do with the tools they get. That’s not my
problem, they do exactly as they like.”
However in 1995 researchers bought legcuffs which were
stamped “Hiatts” and “Made in England” from a US-based
distributor, Hiatt-Thompson. Patrick Foster confirmed that they
were identical to the ones which were used on him. It would
appear that Hiatts had been exporting oversized handcuffs from
the UK to the USA where Hiatt-Thompson would add longer
chains to turn them into legcuffs; the sale and export of legcuffs
are still legal in the USA.
On 28 July 2000, UK Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain
announced the introduction of new controls on the export of
individual “oversize” bracelet cuffs so that they cannot be used
for leg irons or legcuffs. AI welcomes this statement, but the
Hiatts case illustrates how easily export controls can be evaded
and underlines the need for transparency and accountability.
The case of the Spanish arms manufacturing company
Larrañaga y Elorza highlights the urgent need to introduce
controls which cover the whole of the European Union (EU). For
the past 10 years Larrañaga y Elorza has specialized in
manufacturing restraint devices and irons. 4 Tomás Astigarraga,
the company’s Export Manager, was quoted in the Spanish
newspaper El País5 as saying that the main customers of the
irons manufactured by Larrañaga y Elorza were the USA and
some countries in South America. He told the newspaper that