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Stopping the torture trade “Officers came at me with an object about 3 feet high and about 1½ feet wide, it’s got wavy lines running through it, it’s like a shield. And they pushed that against my body and when they hit me with that I felt nothing but electricity running through my body. It made an electrical noise. They hit me with this twice, the first time they hit me with this I buckled, the second time I fell to the floor. I was hollering up a storm, screaming for help but nobody helped me.” “They told me to lay down on the concrete slab, it’s a bed made out of concrete. There are four rings at each corner... They told me to lay on my stomach and when I asked what for, [an officer] pushed me down and put the shield on me and electrocuted me. I couldn’t move my muscles. They handcuffed my hands to the rings and then they put shackles on my feet and put handcuffs around the shackles on my feet to insert them in the rings. They hit me with the shield one time and left it on. I thought I was being killed. Then they left me for about 17 hours. When I told them I need to urinate they told me ‘when you were a child did you never piss on yourself.’ And that’s what I had to do.” Dart-firing taser guns typically shoot two wire-trailing darts with hooks over a distance of between 15 and 30 feet initially using a smokeless gunpowder and now using air-gun (compressed air) technology. When the hooks affix to the victim’s body or clothing, an incapacitating shock is inflicted on impact or by using the gun’s trigger. Some US authorities have authorized the use of taser guns in law enforcement, but not for use by private citizens. Inmates at the supermaximum security Red Onion State Prison in Pound, Virginia, USA, have alleged widespread excessive use of force by guards, including with electro-shock weapons such as stun guns, stun shields and tasers. One inmate was electro-shocked with a taser gun after he displayed reluctance to strip and permit a visual body search, in the presence of female staff, after his arrival at the prison in September 1998. According to Human Rights Watch, the prison warden acknowledged that a taser gun had been used because the inmate hesitated to strip off his clothing, and thus “was failing to obey instructions”. © Stuart Freedman 27
Stopping the torture trade 28 Unfortunately, due to copyright restrictions, this image is unavailable on the web Please contact your nearest Amnesty International section if you wish to obtain a hard copy of this publication. AI has received reports that such electroshock weapons have been transferred from US companies to Turkey (electro-shock shields) and Saudi Arabia (taser guns and electro-shock batons and shields), both countries where electro-shock torture has been reported. Electro-shock stun belts One of the most disturbing developments in the field of electro-shock technology is the stun belt. Unlike other high-voltage electro-shock stun devices, it is worn by the prisoner, sometimes for hours at a time, with the constant threat that it can be activated at any time. The belt works by remote control; the police or prison officer using the device can be as far as 90 metres away. On activation, a typical stun belt delivers an eight-second shock of 50,000 volts. This high-pulse current enters the wearer’s body at the site of the electrodes, near the kidneys, and passes through the body. The shock causes incapacitation in the first few seconds and severe pain rising during the eight seconds. The electro-shock cannot be stopped once activated. The belt relies The beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers caused a national outcry in the USA. Rodney King was hit twice with an electro-shock taser gun before being beaten with batons, kicked and punched by three uniformed police officers; 21 other officers stood by. © Rex Features
Page 1 and 2: Torturers are not born, they are nu
Page 3 and 4: Amnesty International (AI) is a wor
Page 5 and 6: First published in 2001 by Amnesty
Page 8 and 9: Muhammad Ali backs the campaign aga
Page 10 and 11: © Ina Tin/AI Cosette Ibrahim, a fo
Page 12 and 13: Stopping the torture trade “Once
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Page 16 and 17: Stopping the torture trade Bangkwan
Page 18 and 19: Diagram of a “tiger bed” or sha
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Page 22 and 23: 3: CHEMICAL CONTROL Tear gas Stoppi
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Page 28 and 29: In June 1999, 2,000 peaceful demons
Page 30 and 31: 4: SHOCKING WEAPONS Stopping the to
Page 32 and 33: © Popperfoto/Reuters Unfortunately
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Page 48 and 49: 5: TORTURE SKILLS Stopping the tort
Page 50 and 51: Stopping the torture trade governme
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Page 56 and 57: 6: AN AGENDA FOR ACTION Stopping th
Page 58 and 59: Stopping the torture trade non leth
Page 60 and 61: Endnotes Stopping the torture trade
Page 62 and 63: Stopping the torture trade 39 Air W

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