1. Home
  2. Middle East and North Africa

Region still lacks support for torture victims, say observers

Beatings, burnings, solitary confinement and the misuse of anti-terrorism laws were some of the abuses cited in the Middle East by human rights activists as the world marks the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on Monday. Below are a series of articles on incidents of torture and human rights abuse in some countries of the region. JORDAN: Probes into torture lack transparency, rights activists say AMMAN. At a time when the number of complaints of torture is rising, local human rights groups have criticised authorities for what they call a lack of transparency in the investigation of such practices. “Torture and abuse are on the rise,” said Hani Dahleh, head of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR). “And mechanisms for investigation aren’t transparent at all.” According to AOHR officials, the organisation received a total of 50 complaints of torture last year, compared to 40 in 2004. One recent case was that of policeman Hassan Satry, who, according to Dahleh, was arbitrarily arrested last April under suspicion of having sent weapons to the Palestinian Hamas group in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was not released until 47 days later. In a complaint lodged with the AOHR, Satry alleged he had been taken to five different detention centres throughout the country, in which he was questioned by the General Intelligence Department (GID). “While in detention, I was repeatedly tortured,” Satry told IRIN. Pictures taken after his release reveal several cuts, lacerations and burns all over his body. Additionally, he added, the secret police confiscated all of his documents, effectively preventing him from seeking legal employment. “No one returned my papers,” he said. “Without them, I can’t find a new job.” While government officials refused to comment on the issue, a 2005 report issued by the government-run National Centre for Human Rights noted that 54 complaints of torture were registered in 2005. The report goes on to point out that some 74 percent of these complaints were met by some form of official response. “There’s abuse in Jordan, but it’s extremely difficult to prove,” affirmed NCHR General Commissioner Shaher Bak. “Either because alleged victims have no proof or because the authorities simply deny having done it.” According to Bak, Jordan's ratification of the UN Convention against Torture – as published in the government’s official gazette earlier this month – represented a major step forward in terms of the eventual eradication of the practice. “Now the convention will become law, and will have to be applied,” Bak said. EGYPT: Torture is business as usual for local law enforcement, say activists CAIRO. Ahmed Mammoud Tammam, 18, had a fight with a neighbour over a girl. The neighbour complained to a friend who worked in the nearby Omranniya police station. Later that day, eight policemen broke into Tammam's house and arrested him. Tammam died in police custody two days later. The resulting autopsy report, which noted multiple bruises as well as electric burn marks on his scrotum, concluded that Tammam had died after his body was exposed to a bare source of electric current. The recent case of Mohammed al-Sharqawi, a pro-democracy activist tortured after his arrest at a recent demonstration, has drawn considerable attention to the use of torture against activists. But according to Magda Adli, director of the Nadim Centre for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, “most torture victims in Egypt aren’t activists, but normal citizens”. Torture, experts note, is not reserved for those with opinions different from the ruling regime, but for those accused of petty crimes as well, such as theft. According to Adli, police often arrest dozens of people in a single sweep, and then torture them all until someone confesses – whether or not they are actually guilty. Besides its usefulness in obtaining confessions, Adli also said the police use torture as a form of personal revenge by members of the regime or police force. She cited one case in which a man was allegedly tortured for quitting his job as a private cook for the Minster of Health without giving adequate notice. While Adli believes torture is frequently used in police stations throughout the country, she cited the many factors that make compilation of statistics difficult. Human Rights groups devoted to the issue of torture are not permitted to promote themselves in Egypt, Adli explained, so many Egyptians do not know of their existence. Those who do, meanwhile, are often afraid that reporting incidents of torture will lead to future arrests. The Nadim Centre documented 31 cases of death resulting from torture between June 2004 and May 2005. Basma Abd al-Aziz, a doctor at Nadim, noted that the centre receives an average of three new alleged torture victims a month. She went to point out that, of these, only about three in ten espouse specific political views. The Ministry of the Interior did not respond to requests for comment. However, a 2005 report issued by the governmental National Council for Human Rights conceded that arresting everyone present at a given crime scene – then torturing them for information – constituted an “abnormal investigative practice”. The non-governmental Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) reported 292 torture cases between January 1993 and April 2004, 120 of which resulted in the death of detainees. The EOHR reported 17 additional deaths between May 2004 and July 2005. Despite many well-documented cases of abuse of prisoners in state custody, one high-level interior ministry official told Human Rights Watch in February 2005 that the government had not launched a single criminal investigation into torture allegations in the past 19 years. SYRIA: Torture “decreased greatly”, but abuse still an issue DAMASCUS. Akram al-Bunni remembers a time when verbal abuse and a beating was the least a political detainee could expect at the hands of government interrogators. “It went like this,” said al-Bunni, a former political prisoner held for 17 years for membership in the illegal Communist Action Party. Al-Bunni arched his arms behind his back and shuffled backward to demonstrate how he was allegedly tortured while in prison. “Compared to that, political prisoners these days get five-star treatment,” he joked. Syria has long been known to international rights groups as one of the most repressive security regimes in the region, with Amnesty International (AI) documenting 38 types of torture and ill-treatment used against detainees in recent years. In a recent report, AI stated that at least nine people were reported to have died in 2004 as a result of torture and ill-treatment while in custody. Nevertheless, local activists point out that, since President Bashar al-Assad’s ascension to the presidency in 2000, the use of torture by the security services – which enjoy wide-ranging powers under the country’s 43-year-old emergency laws – has been noticeably reduced. “In general, torture has decreased greatly, and it has completely stopped for prisoners of conscience,” said Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organisation for Human Rights. “There are still cases of abuse, though, usually for Islamist prisoners who are suspected of being associated with extremist groups or al-Qaeda.” In April, rights groups reported that Mohammed Shaher Heisah, detained earlier on charges of belonging to a banned Islamic group, died under torture while in police custody. Syrian authorities, however, insisted that Heisah died of a stroke while in prison. While Syria acceded to the UN Convention against Torture in August 2004, Damascus continues to have reservations about Article 20 of the convention, which allows outside observers to investigate torture claims within the country. Currently, the Damascus office of the International Committee of the Red Cross is barred from making prison visits in order to assess the situation of detainees. Although Article 28 of the Syrian constitution states that “no one may be tortured physically or mentally or treated in a humiliating manner”, there are no recorded cases of security officials being prosecuted for alleged abuses. According to Qurabi, forms of contemporary abuse include beatings, burning with cigarettes and psychological torture. Syria has also been at the centre of international debate over the US practise of “rendition”, by which individuals suspected of terror links are transferred to third-party nations for interrogation, where they are routinely subject to torture. In March, Canadian national Maher Arar testified before a European Parliament committee that he had been deported from the US in 2002 by CIA officials and taken to Syria where he was tortured for 10 months before being released. Local activists, meanwhile, say their priority is to raise the awareness of Syrian citizens about their basic rights. “Syrians who have been detained often don’t complain about what happened,” said Qurabi. “They don’t see physicians, who could diagnose and document the abuse.” MD/BH/HM/SZ/AM

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join