Torture

A judge´s decision to acquit mother of two Yecenia Armenta Graciano and release her from prison in northern Mexico brings an end to four long years of injustice, said Amnesty International.

The confirmation of the use of torture by Indonesia’s security forces by Indonesia’s chief of police is an unprecedented turnaround after more than a decade of stubborn denial of this practice, said Amnesty International today.

Hundreds of asylum-seekers, refugees and migrant workers have been deported and even abducted in forced returns from Russia to Uzbekistan, where they have been subjected to torture, said Amnesty International in a briefing released today. The briefing, Fast-track to Torture: Abductions and Forcible Returns from Russia to Uzbekistan, examines how the Russian authorities have cooperated with Uzbekistan in hundreds of deportation cases despite clear risks that individuals could be tortured upon return.

The senate committe on Justice and Human Rights convened a second inquiry on Amnesty International’s ‘Above The Law: Torture in the Police’ report launched in December 2014 following a resolution passed in January to respond to the evidence included in the report regarding widespread torture in the Philippine National Police.

In the past 24 hours, judges in two states in northern Mexico have released torture victims who have spent years in prison away from their families and young children, providing hope for justice in countless similar cases of people tortured and detained unfairly, Amnesty International said today.

BLOG: A few weeks ago, I attended one of Mexico’s new ‘spoken’ trials as an observer. It was one of the first in which a survivor of sexual torture gave oral testimony against the man who tortured her, a policeman.

A UN Working Group has determined that the Saudi Arabian authorities have arbitrarily detained nine peaceful activists in blatant violation of international law, in an Opinion that sets out damning evidence of Saudi Arabia’s utter disregard for human rights, said Amnesty International today.

China’s criminal justice system is still heavily reliant on forced confessions obtained through torture and ill-treatment, with lawyers who persist in raising claims of abuse often threatened, harassed, or even detained and tortured themselves, Amnesty International said in a new report released today.

The acquittal of a young woman who was tortured into confessing to the crime of extortion is long awaited good news but Mexico must ensure those responsible for the abuse she suffered face justice and that she receives reparation, said Amnesty International.

In 1999, Uzbekistani security forces tortured journalist Muhammad Bekzhanov, editor of a banned opposition newspaper. They beat him with rubber truncheons, suffocated him and gave him electric shocks until he confessed to “anti-state” offences.

At trial, a judge dismissed Muhammad’s allegations that he was tortured and used his ‘confession’ to sentence him to 15 years in prison.