Screengrab from phone footage taken in Moria Camp on 18 July 2017 PEPPER SPRAYED WHILE RESTRAINED Following a March 2017 mission to Croatia, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s (CPT) 2018 report described how “at Osijek County Prison an inmate who had been placed ankle- and handcuffed in a ‘rubber room’ was in addition pepper sprayed by custodial staff after having thus been immobilised.”25 The CPT concluded that “to administer pepper spray to a prisoner trussed up in the manner described above can only be for punitive reasons and the CPT considers that the staff members responsible should be investigated for the ill-treatment of this prisoner.”26 BEATEN AND TEAR GASED Amnesty International documented cases of police ill-treatment and use of excessive force against asylum seekers during a protest on 18 July 2017 in Moria camp near Mytilene in Greece, which included the reported discharge of chemical irritants inside a container where asylum seekers were accommodated. One of the asylum seekers arrested that day, identified as “F”, told Amnesty International: ‘The police fired a lot of tear gas and I felt like I was suffocating… Ten police officers beat me everywhere with their batons for three minutes. I was on the ground trying to protect myself, trying to make myself small… They hit me on the righthand and on the head with their batons and kicked me with their boots… The police officer who took me to the car spat on my face and called me ‘stupid African’”27 25 CPT, Report to the Government of Croatia on the visit to Croatia carried out by the CPT from 14 to 22 March 2017, 2 October 2018, para. 28, rm.coe.int/16808e2a0e 26 CPT, Report to the Government of Croatia on the visit to Croatia, para. 59 27 Amnesty International, Greece: Authorities must investigate allegations of excessive use of force and ill-treatment of asylum-seekers in Lesvos, (Index: EUR 25/6845/2017), www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR2568452017ENGLISH.pdf 14 ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation