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III. Torture and Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of Suspects in Police Custody

In June 2006, Human Rights Watch interviewed 35 individuals in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, many of them children, who provided detailed and consistent accounts of mistreatment and torture by police officers while in police custody.Many of these individuals told Human Rights Watch that during police interrogation they were bound in painful positions, hung from a tree or from a hook in the ceiling, and then severely beaten, burned, and abused by police until they agreed to confess to the crime of which they were accused. The experiences of current prisoners and detainees in Conakry, and information from local human rights groups, suggest that the use of torture by the police is routine.

The Guinean constitution guarantees freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.8 International conventions ratified by Guinea, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also prohibit the use of torture.9

Torture, as defined in the UN Convention, is an act by which severe mental or physical pain or suffering is intentionally inflicted against an individual, at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official, the purpose of which is to obtain information, or a confession, or punishment for an act the individual has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidation, coercion, or discrimination of any kind.10 Human Rights Watch’s research revealed a clear pattern of torture of suspects in police custody. Nearly all of the cases of abuse documented met the elements described above and thus rose to the level of torture.11

Arrest and Interrogation of Suspects

After arrest, most suspects detained by the police in Guinea are taken into police custody where they are interrogated at one of numerous police stations. Under Guinean law, an individual may spend a maximum of 48 hours in police custody before being presented to judicial authorities to be charged.12 However, seven individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported spending weeks if not months in police custody before being presented to a judge for the first time. Those interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that it was during this period of police custody that they were subjected to police abuses that amounted to torture.

Types of Torture or Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment Experienced During Police Custody

The most common types of abuse committed by the police in Guinea and described to Human Rights Watch by victims include binding the detainee with nylon cords in painful positions and then beating him.

As described, the detainee’s arms were often bound tightly behind his back just above the elbow and below the shoulder with cord, and the detainee hung from a tree in a courtyard or from a hook in the ceiling. The weight of the body caused the cord to cut deeply into the skin. Some victims who were suspended reported that their legs were also bound at the ankles and brought up behind the back. Once suspended, the detainee was then beaten with police batons, pieces of wood, or other implements, and burned with cigarettes, while being interrogated.13 

Individuals who have been subjected to this technique are easily recognizable as they present with large, circular scars around their arms just above the elbow and right below the shoulder, from where they were bound and hung. During its visit to Guinea’s biggest prison, known as the “Maison Centrale,” Human Rights Watch identified at least seventy individuals bearing such scars, and interviewed twenty of them, including three children. One member of a local prisoners’ advocacy organization reported seeing a prisoner whose wounds from being suspended were so deep that they revealed bone.14 Several victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that full sensation had not returned to their hands even years after being suspended. According to a local human rights defender, such techniques date back to the Sékou Touré period.15

Prisoners in the Maison Centrale in Conakry bear scars that they say are a result of being bound with cords and hung in the air as part of a torture technique used during police interrogation. © 2006 Human Rights Watch

The following is an account from a 16-year-old detainee in pre-trial detention for some four years, who told Human Rights Watch that the police subjected him to the treatment described at the age of 12, before bringing him to prison:

I am accused of stealing boxes of food in the market. I was arrested at my house by the police and taken to a police station in downtown Conakry. They tied my arms behind my back and then hoisted me up in a tree in the courtyard. I was hanging there for about three hours. Two policemen were telling me to tell the truth, to admit that I stole the goods. Then they pushed their cigarettes into my arms. At first I maintained my innocence, but I was in so much pain that I had to say I stole it.  Otherwise, they would have continued.16

In one variation to the technique described above, the detainee is leaned forward in a crouching position, and his hands are bound underneath his ankles. The detainee is then tipped forward onto his face or onto his side and then beaten with a police club, with a piece of wood, or with a cord, as described in the following account (with accompanying photograph) from a detainee who arrived in the Maison Centrale in June 2006:

I am accused of armed robbery. I was arrested on June 13, 2006, and taken to the police station in Bellvue.17 The police abused me there for one week. Every day, they would take me out of my cell at four in the morning and beat me until six in the morning. They handcuffed my hands under my legs and put an iron bar under my knees. Then they tipped me forward so that my butt stuck up in the air. I was beaten with clubs and whipped on my buttocks with some kind of cord. They told me to confess. They did this until I denounced three innocents.18 I finally recognized what they wanted me to say to save my life.19

A prisoner in the Maison Centrale shows the wounds he allegedly received from being repeatedly beaten and whipped on the buttocks during police interrogation in June 2006. © 2006 Human Rights Watch

Several individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported more uncommon torture techniques applied to them during police interrogation, including the removal of teeth, being burnt with caustic chemicals, and being cut with razor blades.20

Who is Targeted

Of the 35 victims of torture interviewed by Human Rights Watch, all were male, and most were between the ages of 16 and 40. Seven were children21 at the time they were tortured; two were as young as 12 and 14 at that time. All of those interviewed were accused of or convicted for common crimes such as petty theft, armed robbery, and some for murder. Many of the individuals subject to the most severe torture sessions appear to be those accused of crimes involving guns, such as armed robbery.

Nearly all individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that police officers tortured them until they were willing to “recognize the facts” of the crime of which they were accused, and that as soon as they did so torture stopped.22 Individuals interviewed reported that a typical torture session lasted anywhere from one to twelve hours. Many interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that they endured several such sessions before confessing.23 Once a confession is obtained, police draw up a report that is presented to a judge, which includes mention of the confession.24

Government Response

Following unsuccessful attempts during Human Rights Watch’s time in Conakry to meet with the minister of security, under whose authority the police are placed, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the minister requesting a response to the allegations relating to police torture now contained in this report. Though Human Rights Watch was told by an official within the Ministry of Security that the letter had been received by the minister and was being studied,25 there was no response at the time this report went to publication.

Human rights defenders interviewed by Human Rights Watch in April and June 2006 report that they have never heard of a government investigation into police torture or prosecution of individuals involved. Although most victims interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they did not attempt to raise the issue of police torture with judicial authorities, based on the scars witnessed by Human Rights Watch many of the victims must have had wounds visible to any observer at the time they were brought before judicial authorities. Those few victims who told Human Rights Watch that they raised the issue of their mistreatment by the police with a judge claimed that their complaint was ignored.




[8] Constitution of the Republic of Guinea, 1990, Title II, Article 6.

[9] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (entered into force March 23, 1976; ratified by Guinea in 1978); African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), (entered into force October 21, 1986; ratified by Guinea in 1982); Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), adopted December 10, 1984, G.A. Res. 39/46, annex, 39, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (entered into force June 26, 1987; ratified by Guinea in 1989); Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, U.N. Doc. A/RES/44/25 (entered into force September 2, 1990; acceded to by Guinea in 1990).

[10] Convention against Torture, Article 1.

[11] Convention against Torture, Article 16.

[12] Guinean Code of Penal Procedure, 1998, Article 60.  An extension of an additional 48 hours may be authorized by a public prosecutor or an investigating magistrate, for a total of 96 hours. 

[13] Human Rights Watch interviews with prisoners and detainees, Conakry, June 20 and 23, 2006.

[14] Human Rights Watch interview with a local prisoners’ advocacy organization, Conakry, June 14, 2006.

[15] Human Rights Watch interview with a local human rights defender, Conakry, June 30, 2006.

[16] Human Rights Watch interview with a detainee, Conakry, June 23, 2006.

[17] A neighborhood in central Conakry.

[18] Human Rights Watch had the opportunity to meet two of the “innocents” denounced by this individual, who were also being held in the Maison Centrale.  Human Rights Watch interviews with detainees, Conakry, June 23, 2006.

[19] Human Rights Watch interview with a detainee, Conakry, June 23, 2006. 

[20] Human Rights Watch interviews with prisoners and detainees, Conakry, June 20 and 23, 2006.

[21] Under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 1, “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.”

[22] Human Rights Watch interviews with prisoners and detainees, Conakry, June 20 and 23, 2006.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Human Rights Watch interviews with a criminal defense lawyer, prisoners and detainees, Conakry, June 16, 20 and 23, 2006.

[25] Human Rights Watch email correspondence with an official in the Ministry of Security, July 29, 2006.


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