A/HRC/13/39/Add.5 misdemeanour and can never be punished with administrative or disciplinary sanctions alone. During my country missions, I was confronted time and again with high Government officials who assured me that in case torture ever occurred in their countries, the perpetrators would definitely be sanctioned with the most severe penalties, such as the reduction of their salaries or the postponement of their promotion for a certain period of time. This understanding of torture as a trivial offence is one of the main reasons for its worldwide practice. The sanction for torture has to be similar to “the most serious offences under the domestic legal system”;20 a review of the CAT Committee’s practice suggests custodial sentences between six and twenty years.21 Unless there are very strong mitigating circumstances, more lenient punishment would be considered as an insult towards the victims’ suffering and be void of any deterring effect.22 3. Methods of torture 50. In terms of torture methods, I encountered a disturbing variety of ways in which victims were made to suffer. While an exhaustive enumeration of the measures used would fail to express the horror which victims have to endure, and an analysis of each method would merit a separate in-depth study, I would like to emphasise the literally devastating brutality with which torture victims are overwhelmingly abused, and furthermore the repugnant creativity with which torture methods are developed. Certain methods were already used by the Inquisition during the Middle Ages and are widespread in different region of the world, such as “falanga” (beating the soles of the feet) or “strappado” (suspension in various positions). 51. In most cases of torture, victims suffer from brute and unrestrained violence. They were punched and kicked, usually until they passed out; beaten with sticks, truncheons, iron bars, rifle butts, or hammers; flogged with whips or chains; suffocated with plastic bags or gas masks over their head – sometimes chilli or similar irritants were added; their skin was burned with cigarettes or hot metal objects; sensitive parts of their bodies, e.g. genitals, were particularly severely beaten or electrocuted. Victims were trampled on their thighs and legs, and had needles forced under their fingernails. Sometimes even shot wounds were intentionally inflicted. The list could be easily extended. The victims are normally handcuffed to a chair or radiator, stripped naked or suspended from the ceiling. In no way is the victim able to protect him or herself. 52. More sophisticated torture methods are applied with such regularity that they acquired their own names, e.g. “flying to space”,23 “grilled chicken”,24 “telephone”,25 “tiger bench”,26 “exhausting an eagle”,27 “reversing an airplane”28. The euphemistic wording only adds to the humiliation and reflects the dehumanisation of the victim. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Burgers and Danelius, 129. Ingelse, 342. Guridi v Spain, CAT Communication No. 212/2002, 17 May 2005. A person is made to stand on a chair which is eventually kicked away. See E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.4. A detainee is handcuffed behind the knees and hung upside-down from a pole passed behind the knees and subjected to beatings (also called “farruj”). A/HRC/4/33/Add.3. Beating with the flat hands on both ears, resulting in temporary or permanent damage to their hearing. A/HRC/7/3/Add.6. The victim is forced to sit motionless on a tiny stool a few centimeters off the ground for a long period of time. E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6. The victim is forced to stand on a tall stool and subjected to beatings until exhaustion. E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6. Person has to bend over while holding legs straight, feet close together and arms lifted high. E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6. 17