Beating of prisoners

In some countries, prisoners are beaten (sometimes to death). This may either be done as a form of torture to obtain information, to frighten the citizenry, or as a method of execution. Prisoners may be beaten with blunt instruments, clubs, rifle butts, sticks or truncheons. They are slapped, kicked or punched. Falanga, blows to the soles of the feet, is a frequent form of torture. Whippings with rope, hide, wire or barbed wire are common. Canning and flogging are still practised as standard or alternative punishments in some countries. Victims have had blankets placed over them; motor tyres placed over the blankets restraining their arms and them beaten through the blankets. Often victims are hung upside down and beaten.

In a recent survey of victims of torture 92% were beaten while in prison. Beatings has been reported in the following countries:

Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan AJ, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania UR, Tunisia, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, USA, Uruguay

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran Islamic Rep, Iraq, Israel, Korea Rep, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syrian AR, Taiwan (Rep of China)

Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Turkey, USSR, UK, Yugoslavia

Media attention was given in 1993 to the public flogging of an Anglican bishop in the Sudan. He was convicted of adultery and received 80 lashes in accordance with Islamic law.