/ 28 February 2001

?NO ONE SAFE? FROM TORTURE IN EGYPT

TORTURE is “rife” in Egyptian police stations, says Amnesty International, warning that “no one is safe from harm”. Amnesty listed “electric shocks, beatings, whippings, suspension by the wrists or ankles, suspension in contorted positions from a horizontal pole, death threats and threats of rape or sexual abuse of the detainees or their female relatives,” as the most common forms of torture. “Hundreds of thousands of torture complaints, lodged with the authorities, have never been properly investigated, contributing to a cycle of impunity which facilitates further torture,” an Amnesty press release said. – AFP