Russian Federation Following a visit conducted in 2012, the CPT highlighted the use of handcuffs to facilitate acts of torture and other ill-treatment in the Russian Federation. An inmate at Closed-Type Prison No. 2 in Vladimir (“Vladimirskiy Tsentral”) alleged that he had been handcuffed to a wire fence outside, placed “in a crucifix position” and doused with cold water in winter.163 The CPT also received allegations of law enforcement officers’ use of a torture method referred to as “televizor”, which consisted of handcuffing a person behind his or her back, forcing the person to bend forward while seated on a chair and placing a heavy object on his or her back.164 Ukraine The CPT and Amnesty International have received multiple allegations from those deprived of their liberty in Ukraine of the use of handcuffs to inflict treatment of such severity that it could be considered as amounting to torture. Such treatment included the application of handcuffs which are then forced up the forearm with a hammer,165 suspension by handcuffs166 (in some cases with the infliction of repeated and severe baton strikes)167, and breaking a person’s arms by standing on them while he was handcuffed behind his back.168 Other issues raised by the CPT were undue tightening of handcuffs during transportation, and the handcuffing of prisoners to fixed objects without food or water for up to two days.169 5.1.2. Manufacture, promotion and transfer of standard handcuffs or leg restraints The Omega Research Foundation has identified companies throughout the CoE that have manufactured and/or promoted hand or leg restraints for law enforcement, since 2012 including in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Spain, the Ukraine and the UK. 170 Whilst EU export of certain leg restraints is controlled under EC Regulation 1236/2005, the export of standard handcuffs is not. To date no publicly available comprehensive official CoE-wide survey has been carried out identifying which CoE States control the import and export of these devices for law enforcement purposes, at the national level. Spain is one of the few CoE countries known to require exporters to obtain a licence to export standard handcuffs.171 In March 2014, the Spanish Government suspended 15 licenses for the export of certain types of law enforcement equipment including “chrome handcuffs with ratchet closure” to Venezuela due to the “situation of internal instability and risk of deviation of use”.172 In April 2016, the Spanish authorities informed the Omega Research Foundation 163 CPT (17 December 2013) op.cit., paragraph 69. CPT (17 December 2013) op.cit., paragraph 23. 165 CPT (5 September 2013) op.cit., paragraph 16. 166 CPT (19 June 2017) op.cit., paragraph 15. 167 CPT (29 April 2014) op.cit., paragraph 38. 168 Amnesty International, Ukraine: Don’t Stop Halfway: Government Must Use New Criminal Procedure Code to End Torture, 2013. 169 CPT (19 June 2017) op.cit., paragraph 17. 170 Details of relevant CoE companies and marketing materials on file with Omega Research Foundation. 171 Spain, Annex II.2 of Royal Decree 679/2014 of 1 August 2014 establishing the control Regulation on external trade in defence material, other material and dual-use items and technologies. 172 Spanish Secretary of State for Trade, Spanish Statistics on the Export of Defence Material, Other Material and Dual Use Items and Technologies, 2014, Annex II, p. 74; Correspondence to the Omega Research Foundation from an official from the Directorate General for International Trade and Investments, Secretariat of State for Trade, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, 9 February 2016. 164 35

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents