“They used an electric shock baton to electrocute me when they were questioning me, by shoving it into my side. I told them I just had a baby and asked them not to do it anymore, so they eventually stopped… The electric shock baton was so painful and made me feel completely exhausted. I begged him not to do it again.” Sreyneang, who was tortured during interrogation COLLECTIVE ELECTRIC SHOCK PUNISHMENT Amnesty International has documented the torture and other ill-treatment of Ethiopian migrants held in Saudi Arabian prisons and detention centres since March 2020.4 This has included the use of direct contact electric shock devices to punish detainees criticizing their poor living conditions. “If we complain, they apply some device on you and you fall down. It’s like when you touch something with electricity. It leaves a red mark on your skin,” said one prisoner, Solomon. He claimed that guards used electric shock devices against him in Jizan Central Prison and in Jeddah Prison because he complained and protested with other detainees about the lack of health care: “They used this electric device. I had a red mark on my back. It made a small hole on my clothes. I saw a man whose nose and mouth were bleeding after that. Since then, we don’t complain anymore because we’re afraid they’ll do again the electric thing on our back. We keep quiet”. Another prisoner, Tesfay, recounted how such weapons were used for “collective punishment” in Jeddah Prison after he and his fellow inmates refused to take bread because there was not one piece for each man in their room: “They took us all outside, except an old man. They were 20 and told us to face the wall. They used the device on all of us on our back. My skin became red. It was very painful for two days, I couldn’t sleep. The day before, I heard crying in the room next door. We asked what happened. They said that one man was beaten with the same stick.”5 “I BEGGED HIM NOT TO DO IT AGAIN.” In May 2017, Sreyneang was at home with her two young children in Dangkao Commune, Cambodia, where she rented a small room in a building housing mostly low-income garment and construction workers. A large group of police officers arrived outside and conducted a drug raid, arresting two men who lived upstairs. They then searched other rooms in the building. When they entered her room, they arrested Sreyneang and took her to the local police station, where they questioned her. She recalled: “They used an electric shock baton to electrocute me when they were questioning me, by shoving it into my side. I told them I just had a baby and asked them not to do it anymore, so they eventually stopped. They asked me how many times I sold drugs and when was the last time. I said I never sold any drugs and don’t know anything about it. The police officer said If I didn’t confess it, he would use electric shock baton on me again. The electric shock baton was so painful and made me feel completely exhausted. I begged him not to do it again.”6 4 5 6 8 Amnesty International, “This is worse than covid-19”: Ethiopians abandoned and abused in Saudi prisons, (Index: MDE 23/3125/2020), www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2020-09/Report.pdf?ofpXkfgKj_IEX2E2UrWjxmp_ZcloJYda= Amnesty International, “This is worse than covid-19”, p. 15. Amnesty International, Substance Abuses: The Human Cost of Cambodia’s Anti-Drug Campaign, (Index: ASA 23/2220/2020), p. 40 “Electric shock baton” was originally translated as “taser” in the testimony published in the Substance Abuses report but later corrected. ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation