last updated May 15, 2013 The former Guatemalan dictator and General Efraín Ríos Montt was held to account for being involved in a campaign that allegedly killed 200,000 people and led to 45,000 disappearances. On 10 May he was found guilty of crimes against humanity for his part in the killing of 1771 Mayan Ixils during the 1980s and sentenced for 80 years in prison. His co-defendant, former intelligence chief José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, was absolved by the court.
last updated May 14, 2013 According to Amnesty International (AI) the Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist Asma Ahmed, who is a member of the banned opposition party the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), has been detained since 4th May by the Sudanese National Security Services (NSS) at the risk of torture and other ill-treatment
last updated May 14, 2013 The Committee against Torture (CAT) published the fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom on how it implements the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
last updated May 14, 2013 Afghan authorities accuses Z. Kandahari, according to them an American citizen and part of a Special Force Unit operating in Wardak Province, to be leading part in a case of 15 disappeared and tortured Afghans.
last updated May 07, 2013 Amnesty International (AI) urges the Maldives authorities to commute the death sentences of two minors, who received capital punishment for a murder.
last updated May 07, 2013 As the UN Committee against Torture celebrates its 25th anniversary, seven human rights organisations have started a campaign to urge countries that have not yet ratified the Convention against Torture to do so.
last updated May 07, 2013 The British government has started to negotiate compensation payments for thousands of Kenyans who were deprived of their liberty and allegedly tortured during the Mau-Mau uprising during the 1950s. This would be the first compensation settlement for torture and ill-treatment under British imperial rule. The UK high court ruled on 5 October 2012 that the plaintiffs can proceed with compensation claims against the British government.
last updated May 07, 2013 Next month the 79-year-old Leopoldo Garcia Lucero, a torture survivor of the Pinochet regime, will receive the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights about his compensation request. His claim has become the leading case for those seeking compensation from Chile and could set new international standards.
last updated May 07, 2013 The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and various UN Special Rapporteurs urge the United States to adopt all possible measures to guarantee the detainees at Guantánamo Bay detention centre to be released or prosecuted with regard to international human rights, particularly in the context of the current hunger strike.
last updated Apr 30, 2013 Ahmed Ismael al-‘Akkad was arrested in November 2012 during a raid by Syrian authorities in the Sunni Muslim al-Midan neighbourhood in Damascus. Since then he has been missing. None of his family members know about his whereabouts and they are too afraid to ask authorities. They only received a smuggled note from Ahmed from a detention center soon after his disappearance. He claims the inhuman conditions of his detention and the lack of medication for his asthma have worsened his health.
last updated Apr 30, 2013 Grant Cameron, Karl Williams and Suneet Jeerh from the UK were arrested whilst on holiday in Dubai for alleged drug abuse in July 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison on April 29, 2013.
last updated Apr 30, 2013 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has now executed five people since its inauguration in December 2012. Two detainees, who were convicted for murder after shooting rival gang members, were hanged on April 26. The other three executions took place in February.
last updated Apr 30, 2013 There is an east-west-divide in Austria about the usage of such beds in psychiatric institutions. Whereas in the east it is very common, in the western parts of Austria (starting from Linz) there were no such beds, states Ombudsman Peter Kostelka.
According to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) the confinement of patients in such beds is inhuman deprivation of liberty and therefore the Austrian Ombudsman Board started an investigation.
last updated Apr 26, 2013 The hunger strike in Guantanamo, who started on February 6th, has increased during the last weeks. 92 detainees out of 166 are refusing food at the moment. 17 of them are being force-fed and two are in hospital but not in a “life-threatening” condition, according to Lieutenant Colonel Samuel House.
last updated Apr 25, 2013 The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urges the international community to pay attention to the current situation of lawyers in Syria, who are especially affected of harassments.
last updated Apr 25, 2013 The United Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT), Juan E. Méndez, announced that the government of Bahrain postponed his visit (which should take place from 8 to 15 May 2013) for the second time at very short notice and no alternative dates were offered.
last updated Apr 18, 2013 The US Supreme Court rejects Ogoni activists from suing the oil company Shell for being allegedly accomplice to the Nigerian military junta in 1995 in the torture and murder of nine Ogoni activists, known as the Ogoni Nine.
last updated Apr 18, 2013 According to a new report released by Amnesty International (AI) out of 114474 complaints made to prosecutors about police ill-treatment in 2012, only 1750 were investigated, leading to 320 prosecution cases being opened against 438 police officers.
last updated Apr 18, 2013 An elaborate report about U.S. torture practices after 9/11 will be released by an independent task force. The 11 member panel convened by the Constitution Project analysed the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Iraq and at the C.I.A.’s secret prisons and accuses the government under George W. Bush of knowing and hiding those torture methods.
last updated Apr 18, 2013 A 47-year old Romanian citizen died in detention after being suspected to have stolen a chainsaw. Two Hungarian police men are suspected for beating him over 2 hours before he died. Both are now suspended from their duties and two of their superiors, too.
last updated Apr 10, 2013 The Egyptian army were involved in the torture, forced disappearances and killings of civilians during the 2011 uprising, a leaked chapter of a high-level investigation report shows, according to the Guardian. The report is yet to be made public but is expected to raise the pressure on President Mohamed Morsi who has refused to prosecute any officers following his win in the elections last June.
last updated Apr 10, 2013 Amnesty International (AI) has released its annual report on the application of the death penalty around the world declaring that the global trend towards abolishing capital punishment is continuing.
last updated Apr 08, 2013 A judge has sentenced a man to paralysis for allegedly stabbing his friend in the back ten years ago. Ali al-Khawahir, fourteen at the time of the alleged crime, will be paralysed unless he pays 1m Saudi riyals (208,000€) in compensation to the victim for causing the paralysis. The sentence has triggered international criticism by states and human rights organisations.
last updated Apr 03, 2013 New details have emerged about the cruel torture of Iraqi prisoners after UK soldiers have decided to give account on some of the most serious human rights violations at Camp Nama, a US-run detention facility at Baghdad International Airport. The British witnesses were employed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Army Air corps squadron and had guard and transport duties to fulfil at the detention centre at the time of the incidents.
last updated Apr 03, 2013 Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented seven cases of torture inflicted by Malian soldiers on suspected supporters of Islamist armed groups and called upon the Government to investigate the accusations promptly and impartially.
last updated Mar 07, 2013 The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT), Juan E. Méndez has warned that abuses in health-care settings may be considered cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and amount to torture if there is state involvement.
last updated Mar 07, 2013 The Guardian and BBC Arabic have revealed that US veterans were put in charge of the special police commando (SPC) in Iraq, a unit that committed horrendous acts of torture during the US occupation. It is the first time that patterns of systematic torture could be traced back to high-level commandos with direct links to General David Petraeus and former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.
last updated Mar 05, 2013 Eight police officers were suspended and charged with murder after video footage showed them tying a man to the police van and dragging him along the road. The man, Mido Macia, later died of head injuries and internal bleeding.
last updated Feb 28, 2013 After receiving reports that US special forces were involved in the torture and disappearance of Afghan civilians, the Afghan government has ordered the elite forces to leave the province Maidan Wardak. Despite rejections from the US government, President Hamid Karzai seems to rate the evidence as strong enough to demand the retreat.
last updated Feb 21, 2013 The Dubai police have denied the alleged torture of three men charged for consumption and possession of drugs. The three UK citizens have been detained for seven months and claim that the authorities have tortured them by putting guns to their heads and administering electric shocks to their testicles.
last updated Feb 19, 2013 A Moroccan military court has convicted 24 activists in relation to the killing of eleven soldiers at a protest camp in 2010 where they demonstrated against their marginalization and the annexation of the Western Sahara territory in 1975. Nine of the 24 received life sentences and many of the accused claimed to have been tortured in custody.
last updated Feb 14, 2013 The UK organisation Freedom from Torture has disclosed information received by the Home Office that fifteen failed asylum seekers from Sri Lanka claim to have been tortured or abused after their forced return in 2011 by the UK Border Agency (UKBA). All fifteen managed to escape back to the UK where they have been granted refugee status subsequently.
last updated Feb 12, 2013 The Afghan Government has acknowledged the findings of a United Nations Report released on 20 January which gave evidence that nearly half of the 284 interviewed detainees were tortured. It is the first time that the Afghan Government has confirmed the problem of widespread torture of prisoners. The Government panel denied, however, that there was systematic torture in Afghanistan.
last updated Jan 30, 2013
last updated Jan 30, 2013 Human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch (HRW) have urged the Azerbaijani authorities to abide to international human rights law and ensure that detained persons are not subjected to ill-treatment. The allegations came after the police dispersed demonstrations against President Aliyev’s government in Ismayilli and Baku by using teargas and rubber bullets. A large number of protesters were arrested in the aftermath.
last updated Jan 29, 2013 The Russian Government, for the first time, agreed to the publication of a report by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe, that alleges torture in the region of North Caucasus. According to the report, Russian authorities subjected detainees to torture including electric shocks and asphyxiation.
last updated Jan 22, 2013 The United Nations have voiced concerns over the increasing ethnic tensions in the conflict-ridden Mali and the serious human rights violations including torture, extrajudicial killings, amputations, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and rape committed by both Tuareg soldiers and Government forces.
last updated Jan 21, 2013 The United Nations released a report strongly criticising the Afghan authorities for failure of improvement in the treatment of detainees since a similar report a year ago documented widespread torture and abuse. Despite a number of measures by the Afghan government and the international military coalition, the UN came to the conclusion that the number of incidents of torture and ill-treatment increased during the past year.
last updated Jan 17, 2013 The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay, has called for an international investigation into the human rights situation of North Korea alleging possible crimes against humanity including torture and executions of political prisoners.
last updated Jan 07, 2013 The former Nepali Colonel Kumar Lama, 46, has been arrested in the United Kingdom and charged with two counts of torture which he allegedly committed in 2005 in Nepal. The charges have sparked a diplomatic row between the United Kingdom and Nepal.
last updated Dec 19, 2012 The Senate Intelligence Committee voted for the approval of a highly critical and classified report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. The 6,000 pages constitute the most comprehensive review of the intelligence agency’s action since the terrorist attacks in September 2001.
last updated Dec 18, 2012
last updated Dec 11, 2012 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is planning to file a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla and his mother alleging that Padilla was tortured during interrogations. The lawsuit would be the first-ever presented to the Organization of American States in which a U.S. citizen claims to have been tortured by the U.S. government.
last updated Dec 11, 2012 Austria has made two important steps in the field of torture prevention and criminalisation. On 4 December 2012, Austria ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and two days later, the National Council passed an amendment to the Criminal Code incorporating a provision on torture in Article 312a (effective as of 1 January 2013).
last updated Dec 10, 2012 The lawyer of Gambian national Bakary J., Nikolaus Rast, is demanding €750,000 in compensation for physical and psychological pain. Bakary J. was tortured by police officers in 2006 in a warehouse after a failed deportation.
last updated Dec 10, 2012 It is today 10 December, the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights is more committed than ever to keep fighting against torture and ill-treatment, which are a violation of Art. 5 UDHR.
last updated Nov 28, 2012
Time: Thursday, 6 December, 19:00h
Place: “Alte Kapelle” – Institut für Ethik und Recht in der Medizin
Spitalgasse 2-4 (Hof 2.8), Campus, Altes AKH
A-1090 Vienna
last updated Nov 28, 2012 The human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) has released a statement describing the conditions in Australian asylum camps on the island of Nauru as “cruel and degrading”. The experts spent three days on the island and subsequently reported of crowded, hot and wet tents and no privacy.
last updated Nov 28, 2012 The United Nations Committee against Torture (UNCAT) has published its concluding observations after it ended its 49th session (29 October to 23 November 2012). In its report, the UNCAT strongly criticised Russia for persistent reports of torture and ill-treatment and the failure of the State Party to investigate such allegations.
last updated Nov 28, 2012 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has formally adopted the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration on the occasion of the 21st ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
last updated Nov 27, 2012 The United Nations Committee against Torture has published its concluding observations of the 49th session from 29 October to 23 November.
last updated Nov 22, 2012 The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture has released a list of the five countries to be visited in 2013: Armenia, Germany, New Zealand, Peru and Togo. Additionally, the UN body will conduct a follow-up visit to one of the countries it has already visited.
last updated Nov 19, 2012 Charges have been announced against the former Minister of Defence Bacho Akhalaia for allegedly ordering the lockup and abuse of 17 servicemen in an unheated room for three days without food in February 2010. Akhalaia says that the charges are politically motivated.
last updated Nov 14, 2012 The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has released the report on its visit to Ukraine from 29 November to 6 December 2011. The response of the Ukrainian authorities was also published.
last updated Nov 13, 2012 A UK court has ordered the release of militant Islamist cleric Abu Qatada who fought seven years against his deportation to Jordan where he faces a retrial after he was convicted in absentia for his alleged involvement in two bombing plots in 1999 and 2000. Due to concerns that evidence obtained under torture may be used against him, sending him back to Jordan would violate his right to a fair trial under European human rights law, according to the Special Immigration Appeals Court (Siac).
last updated Nov 13, 2012 The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights co-organised with OMCT yesterday a round-table on the "Establishment of the NPM in Togo", on the side of the UN Committee against Torture's session on Togo in Geneva.
last updated Nov 08, 2012 The Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has released its annual report which documents the Committee's country visits from August 2011 until July 2012 and also comments on some recently published visit reports.
last updated Nov 06, 2012 The Atlas of Torture Project team will conduct its fourth visit to Uruguay from 10 to 22 November 2012.
last updated Nov 06, 2012 Leonid Razvozzhayev, a 39-year-old Russian opposition activist and MP assistant, was allegedly kidnapped in Ukraine on 19 October during attempts to seek asylum at the office of the United Nations High Comissioner of Human Rights (UNHCHR) there. Two days later he reportedly reappeared outside a Moscow courthouse shouting that he had been tortured.
last updated Nov 06, 2012 The human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) has revealed that police and soldiers have illegally detained and tortured more than 200 people since the beginning of August when armed attacks were launched on checkpoints, military bases and key infrastructure. The violent attacks are believed to have been carried out by exiled members of Laurent Gbagbo’s former government and military.
last updated Nov 06, 2012 The UK Ministry of Defence is not allowed to resume the transfer of detainees caught in Afghanistan by UK forces to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), the High Court ruled. The decision came after claims were made that the transfer implied a real and serious risk of torture.
last updated Oct 30, 2012 In his report to the General Assembly, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez has put an emphasis on the correlation between capital punishment and torture and stated that an increasing number of states are in the process of redefining the legality of capital punishment. He said that “States need to re-examine their procedures under international law because the ability of States to impose and carry out the death penalty is diminishing as these practices are increasingly viewed to constitute torture.”
last updated Oct 22, 2012 A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses militia forces from the Libyan city of Misrata of severely beating and later executing at least 66 members of the convoy with which Muammar Gaddafi tried to escape one year ago. The report also details Gaddafi’s final hours.
last updated Oct 16, 2012 A week of pretrial motions in the case of the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others has begun with a refusal by the judge to address the subject of torture. All five defendants, who spent years in secret CIA prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay, have claimed they were subjected to torture.
last updated Oct 16, 2012 The number of reported cases of torture and ill-treatment by police and military forces has strongly increased during the last years in Mexico’s struggle with powerful drug cartels, a new Amnesty International (AI) report exposes. Under President Felipe Calderón the reports of torture received by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) tripled from 564 cases in 2008 to 1,669 in 2011 with a high estimated number of unreported cases.
last updated Oct 09, 2012
last updated Sep 18, 2012 The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights – Human Dignity and Public Security Team announces a full time vacancy as project officer in the Atlas of Torture project for the period of 15 November 2012 until October 2013.
last updated Oct 08, 2012 The High Court has ruled that three Kenyans are permitted to claim damages from the British government for suffering what their lawyers described as “unspeakable acts of brutality” during Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion. The three elderly plaintiffs were subjected to castration, beatings and rape in detention in the 1950s when British forces and their Kenyan allies violently suppressed the Mau Mau movement fighting for land and freedom.
last updated Oct 08, 2012 The human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) has called on Rwanda to investigate claims of unlawful detention, enforced disappearances and torture of civilians by the military intelligence unit J2. In its report, AI has documented 45 cases of unlawful detention and 18 allegations of torture and ill-treatment between March 2010 and June 2012.
last updated Oct 04, 2012 The human rights organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report that documents a list of cases in which Palestinians were tortured by Hamas security forces in order to extract confessions. According to HRW, Hamas also continuously uses arbitrary and incommunicado detention, unfair trials and further violations of detainee’s rights.
last updated Oct 03, 2012 The Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has released the report on its ad hoc visit to Armenia in December 2011. The CPT also published the response of the Armenian government.
last updated Oct 02, 2012 The new session of the US Supreme Court has begun with the re-examination of a closely watched case (Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum) on the alleged involvement of oil giant Shell in acts of torture by the Nigerian government between 1992 and 1995. The main question under examination is whether American judges are entitled to hear lawsuits over human rights atrocities abroad.
last updated Oct 02, 2012 A new report released by the human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) condemns the Californian prison system for the excessive use of solitary confinement for prolonged periods. The report
“The Edge of Endurance” calls the treatment of approximately 3,000 prisoners cruel and degrading.
last updated Sep 26, 2012 A Russian court has sentenced Ramil Nigmatzyanov and Ilshat Garifullin to two and two-and-a-half years respectively for illegally detaining a man who was later tortured in a police department in Kazan and died in a hospital shortly after.
last updated Sep 25, 2012 Expert Conference on Torture Prevention
last updated Sep 25, 2012 A report released by the UK charity “Save the Children” documents a series of atrocities against children including torture, abduction and killing during the 18-month-old civil war in Syria. According to activists, close to 2,000 children have been killed and many more traumatised.
last updated Sep 24, 2012 The torture videos released last week have led to mass protests in the country and international criticism of Georgia’s human rights record. The videos were leaked by a Vladimir Bedukadze, a former prison guard now seeking asylum in Belgium. According to Bedukadze, he witnessed torture and violence since 2005 on a daily basis.
last updated Sep 24, 2012 The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT), Juan E. Méndez, has urged Morocco to end widespread police torture. On the occasion of a press conference at the end of his week-long fact-finding mission he also voiced concerns about excessive use of force used on peaceful demonstrators.
last updated Sep 20, 2012 Bahrain has agreed to improve its human rights situation following the formulation of 176 recommendations in the country’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The country said that it had accepted 158 recommendations including the improvement of the treatment of political activists, cracking down on torture and the prevention of violence against ethnic and religious communities.
last updated Sep 20, 2012 The supreme court of Italy has upheld the convictions of 23 American citizens for abducting a terrorism suspect in 2003 and bringing him to a prison in Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. The verdict is the first ruling that has successfully challenged the United States’ extraordinary rendition program.
last updated Sep 19, 2012 Video footage showing police guards torturing detainees was aired on national television and has sparked anti-government protests in Georgia. The video shows uniformed officers at a jail in Tibilisi apparently raping and brutally torturing several detainees.
last updated Sep 18, 2012 The UK authorities have scheduled a mass deportation of Tamils to Sri Lanka despite a high risk of torture upon return. According to human rights organisations, the Tamils, who were not granted asylum in the UK, are likely to be tortured because of their (imputed) links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
last updated Sep 18, 2012 Seven police officers have been charged over the torture and abuse of several arrested medics during last year’s anti-government protests. Two of the accused policemen face the “most serious” charges of extracting confessions by using torture. The other five face lesser charges.
last updated Sep 18, 2012 After the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported in August that the Syrian government had authorised systematic human rights violations including torture, murder and sexual violence, Human Rights Watch recently also accused the rebel forces of committing war crimes.
last updated Sep 18, 2012 On 10 September, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) Juan Méndez held a speech at a meeting of the human rights organisation “Redress” at Chatham House on the absolute nature of the prohibition of torture.
last updated Sep 13, 2012 United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Méndez, has condemned torture and ill-treatment during investigations. He referred to a case of three men who were sentenced to death by in 2006 by the Supreme State Security Emergency Court. The three men, whose sentence has not been carried out, were reportedly tortured.
last updated Sep 12, 2012 The military have identified the detainee who died at Guantanamo prison on Saturday, 8 September, as Yemeni national Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif. The cause of death has not been released yet and authorities said that an investigation into the circumstances of the death is being carried out.
last updated Sep 12, 2012 Shakil Afridi, the doctor involved in finding Osama Bin Laden prior to his assassination, has allegedly given a phone interview to Fox News from his prison cell in Pakistan Central Jail claiming that he was tortured by the notorious Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in jail for supporting a militant group but there is broad consensus that he is punished for his cooperation with the CIA.
last updated Sep 11, 2012 United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (UNSRT) Juan Méndez has criticised the proposed “secret courts” contained in the governments’ justice and security bill. So-called “closed material proceedings” could be established if the government believes that certain evidence might compromise national security. Méndez said that these proceedings could be used to cover up the role of the UK in torture and rendition cases.
last updated Sep 11, 2012 The death of robbery suspect Abd Raouf Kammassi led to the arrest of four police officers who were allegedly torturing him in a police station. The man later died in hospital. According to his lawyer, Kammassi was hit with a sharp object on his head during an interrogation in a police station.
last updated Sep 11, 2012 The head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture, Hansjoerg Geiger, resigned from his post due to a lack of financial and personnel resources. Geiger referred to the agency’s annual report which states that the capacities for undertaking regular visits to places of deprivation of liberty were absolutely insufficient. His successor is former justice secretary of state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rainer Dopp.
last updated Sep 07, 2012 A new report from the human rights organisation Amnesty International (AI) has condemned increasing use of arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture by security forces on peaceful demonstrators since the first democratically elected president Mohamed Nasheed resigned in February under disputed circumstances.
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last updated Sep 06, 2012 The CIA tortured exiled opponents of Muammar al-Gaddafi in secret prisons in Afghanistan and transferred them to Libya, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The report is based on interviews with former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and documents found in the abandoned office of former intelligence chief Musa Kusa in Tripoli in September 2011.
last updated Sep 06, 2012 The former Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Samantar was declared responsible by a US court for torture and killings during the reign of ex-President Siad Barre in the 1980s. The court awarded $21 million to seven US-based Somali natives who sued Samantar on behalf of their relatives.
last updated Sep 03, 2012 In an escalation of violence more than 5,000 people were killed in August, some of them bearing torture marks, according to Syrian activists. In mid-August, ten people were allegedly tortured by electricity, stabbed with knives and burned by cigarette butts before being dumped in the Qaboun district in Damascus. Activists hold the Shabiha, the pro-Assad militia, responsible for the torture and death of the ten people including two children.
