Strappado

Strappado is a form of torture in which a victim is suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to his or her hands which are tied behind their back, in which the arms are most likely dislocated. Weights may be added to the body. Other names for strappado include "reverse hanging" and "Palestinian hanging", although this last name may be a misnomer as human rights groups do not believe that the technique is used by either Israel or the Palestinian Authority. [cite book|pages=109|last = Goldhaber|first = Michael|title = A People's History of the European Court of Human Rights|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year = 2007|isbn = 9780813539836] [cite book|title = Torture and Democracy|last = Rejali|first = Darius|publisher = Princeton University Press|year = 2007|isbn = 9780691114224|pages = 355] It is best known for its use in the Medieval Inquisition, but the practice continues in the modern era. [ [http://www.hrcr.org/safrica/freedom_security/aksoy_turkey.html "Aksoy v. Turkey"] , no. 100/1995/606/694, December 18, 1996, from the [http://www.hrcr.org/ Human & Constitutional Rights Resource Page]
European Commission on Human Rights, [http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/Hof.nsf/233813e697620022c1256864005232b7/d6ff575974b1f791c1256640004c3277?OpenDocument "Aksoy v. Turkey"] , Publication 1996-VI, no. 26, December 18, 1996, from the [http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/Dochome.nsf?Open Netherlands Institute of Human Rights] ] [ [http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/40-45/beginnings/ Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State . Auschwitz 1940-1945 . Surprising Beginnings | PBS ] ]

Variants

There are three variants of this torture. In the first one, the victim has his or her arms tied behind his or her back; a large rope is then tied to his or her wrists and passed over a pulley, beam or a hook on the roof. The torturer pulls on this rope until the victim is hanging from his or her arms. Since he or she has the hands tied behind the back, this will cause a very intense pain and possible dislocation of the arms. The full weight of the subject's body is then supported by the extended and internally-rotated shoulder sockets. While the technique shows no external injuries, it can cause long-term nerve, ligament, or tendon damage. The technique typically causes brachial plexus injury, leading to paralysis or loss of sensation in the arm.

The second variation is similar to the first, but a series of drops is added. In addition to the damage caused by the suspension, the fall from the suspended height would cause major stress to the extended and vulnerable arms, leading to broken shoulders. It is believed that Niccolò Machiavelli, during his 1513 imprisonment after allegedly conspiring against the Medici family in Florence, was subjected to this form of strappado.

In the third variant, the victim's hands are tied to the front. The victim is also hung from the hands, but his or her ankles are tied and a heavy weight is attached to them. This will cause pain and possible damage not only to the arms, but also to the legs and hips. This variant was known as "squassation".

History

Modern instances

The first variant described above (or similar) has been used by the Nazis at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The television documentary series "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi state" by Laurence Rees (U.K. title: "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution") contains an account of this "hanging torture" by surviving victim Jerzy Bielecki, who was subjected to it on suspicion of being a member of the Polish resistance:

He wanted to hang me on the hook. He said, "Stand up on your toes." Finally he hooked me and then he kicked the stool away without any warning. I just felt Jesus Mary, oh my God, the terrible pain. My shoulders were breaking out from the joints. Both arms were breaking out from the joints. I'd been moaning and he just said, "Shut up you dog. You deserve it. You have to suffer." [ [http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/40-45/beginnings/ Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State . Auschwitz 1940-1945 . Surprising Beginnings | PBS ] ]

The Nazis' use of this "hanging torture" has been taken as the basis of a statue on display at the Auschwitz visitors' center, which combines representations of a victim and of a part of the camp's barbed-wire fencing to form the shape of a swastika. [See photo [http://www.kettleriverusa.com/pilgrimage_photos/auschwitz.jpghere] .]

During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army subjected American prisoners of war to the strappado, as well as other techniques, at the Hanoi Hilton prison and at other sites. Known to POWs as "the ropes", the technique was considered terrifying, excruciatingly painful and ultimately impossible to resist. [cite book|last = Howes|first = Craig|title = Voices of the Vietnam POWs: Witnesses to Their Fight|pages = 56|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 1993|isbn= 9780195086805]

According to a 1997 Human Rights Watch report, this technique is "widely employed" by the security forces of Turkey, where is is "usually used together with high pressure water, electric shock, beating, or sexual harassment such as squeezing the testicles or breast or placing a nightstick against or in the vagina or anus." [ [http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/turkey/Turkey-04.htm#P176_36663 TURKEY: TORTURE AND MISTREATMENT IN PRE-TRIAL DETENTION BY ANTI-TERROR POLICE - Techniques of Abuse] ] In 1996, the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture for its use of Palestinian hanging. [ [http://www.hrcr.org/safrica/freedom_security/aksoy_turkey.html "Aksoy v. Turkey"] , no. 100/1995/606/694, December 18, 1996, from the [http://www.hrcr.org/ Human & Constitutional Rights Resource Page]
European Commission on Human Rights, [http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/Hof.nsf/233813e697620022c1256864005232b7/d6ff575974b1f791c1256640004c3277?OpenDocument "Aksoy v. Turkey"] , Publication 1996-VI, no. 26, December 18, 1996, from the [http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/Dochome.nsf?Open Netherlands Institute of Human Rights] ] Turkey has been admonished by Amnesty International and other international human rights groups concerning the use of the technique.

In November 2003, Manadel al-Jamadi, a prisoner of the U.S., was killed during an interrogation session at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in which the method was allegedly used on him. (His corpse, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice, was seen in one of the photographs that broke the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.) The U.S. military has ruled the death a homicide. [cite news|url=http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6988054/
title=Reports detail Abu Ghraib prison death; was it torture?|publisher=Associated Press|date=February 17, 2005|]

One commentator has written,

The Associated Press quoted an expert who described the position in which Jamadi died as a form of torture known as “Palestinian hanging,” in which a prisoner whose hands are secured behind his back is suspended by his arms. (The technique has allegedly been used in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.) [Jane Meyer, [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051114fa_fact "A Deadly Interrogation: Can the C.I.A. legally kill a prisoner?"] , "The New Yorker", November 14, 2005]

In 2003, one of the Bulgarian nurses interrogated during the HIV trial in Libya, Snezhana Dimitrova, claimed that she had been tortured in this way.

"They tied my hands behind my back. Then they hung me from a door. It feels like they are stretching you from all sides. My torso was twisted and my shoulders were dislocated from their joints from time to time. The pain cannot be described. The translator was shouting, 'Confess or you will die here.'"

References