A/HRC/4/33/Add.3 page 27 forced to repeatedly stand and squat; and having cigarettes stubbed out against the skin. Officers were reported to draw faucets or ladders on walls or on the ground, which inmates would have to pretend to drink or climb up. Prisoners described being forced to kiss walls, furniture or the shoes of officers, eat food from a guard’s shoes, shout slogans, and forced to call themselves insulting names. 9. The detainees described how newly arrived detainees would be met by a “welcoming committee” of up to 20 officers. In the courtyard outside their assigned barracks, the new arrivals would be forced to strip to their underwear and be subjected to beatings by the officers with electrical cables and batons while still handcuffed. The beatings would last for long periods at a time. The detainees would be revived with cold water and beaten again, and this treatment would last for days. No medical treatment was provided for the injuries. Additionally, they would be placed in solitary confinement cells, where they would be subjected to further beatings. 10. In one cell block several detainees alleged similar beatings with cabling. The medical examination of the forensic expert revealed that one detainee showed yellowing red “rail-track” bruising with associated abrasions together with circular bruising and central abrasion over the upper half of the back, strongly corroborative of an allegation of beating with cabling. A second detainee showed similar “rail-track” scabbed abrasions horizontally to the lumbar area of the back and both shoulders where there were also irregular areas of fresh scarring strongly corroborative of the allegation of a routine beating. A third detainee who had arrived three days previously from another facility had an area of discontinuous scabbed abrasions down the outer aspect of the right forearm and onto the back of the right hand and adjacent little finger, a pattern of injury consistent with the allegation that they were sustained while warding off blows (defensive-type injuries). The right hand was swollen and there were minimal wrist and finger movements. A prominent area of scabbing overlay the first knuckle of the right ring finger which was extremely tender, displaced and likely fractured. A fourth detainee displayed a scattering of fresh healing “rail-track” abrasions to the upper back and left outer arm again strongly corroborative of the allegation of a beating. A fifth detainee showed similar healing “rail-track” abrasions with associated yellowing pink bruising and irregular areas of abrasion to the upper back. A sixth detainee who alleged that he had been beaten four months previously displayed hyper-pigmented “rail-track” scarring to the back of the right shoulder and circular areas of hyper-pigmented scarring to both shoulders consistent with the time frame of the allegation. He also displayed on his right upper arm a horizontal area of discontinuous “rail-track” fresh pink bruising supportive of his allegation of a very recent assault. A seventh detainee who alleged he was beaten using cabling had irregular areas of young scarring and healing abrasions over the upper back and outer aspect of the left upper arm together with more recent linear scabbed abrasions to the inner aspect of the right thigh consistent with the allegation of two episodes of beatings. 11. Taken together the character, distribution and age of the injuries to these seven detainees provided compelling corroboration of their allegations of routine beatings as an institutional procedure. Many of the detainees also had multiple parallel linear scars, typical of self-inflicted cut wounds, to predominantly the arms and legs. They freely admitted, without prompting, that these scars were from injuries which they had inflicted upon themselves out of a sense of frustration.

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