publications

V. Torture and Ill-treatment

Fourteen out of sixteen detainees or their families told Human Rights Watch that they had been subjected to some form of abuse and in some cases actual torture at the central GID facility. Of the two who did not allege to have been victims of abusive treatment, one said he was threatened with torture. All detainees or their families said they were subjected to solitary confinement throughout their detention, for periods ranging from two days to several months.

Jordanian officials have claimed that allegations of torture are a common ploy by detainees to gain favorable verdicts in their State Security Court trials.162 However, fifteen of the sixteen detainees did not face trial. They had nothing to gain from persisting in making false allegations of torture, as thirteen of the fifteen had been released.

In fact, all but one were initially reluctant to speak to us about this aspect of their experience of detention. Allegations of abuse typically arose in the course of our interviews with them, which focused on procedural aspects of arrest, detention and interrogation. While some detainees initially only related the sense of insult they felt about the manner in which they were interrogated, such as being questioned about the female members of their families, their testimony later revealed that while in custody fifteen of the detainees had been beaten or otherwise ill-treated. One former detainee, Basim F., said of the beatings he suffered that GID officers had treated him “a little harshly.”163

Beatings and other torture

Information about the interrogation and detention of the individuals in the sixteen cases reviewed by Human Rights Watch indicates that the GID regularly practices ill-treatment, including torture, on the detainees in its central facility. For example, Mustafa R. said that at the end of the third round of interrogations, the intelligence officers called officers in military uniform to bring him downstairs to what he called the “torture hall,” where they beat him.164 Since conducting our research in Jordan, Human Rights Watch has received information indicating that these practices continue.165

One form of torture reportedly practiced by the GID is beatings on the soles of the feet (falaqa), a type of torture widely used in several countries. The practice was identified as being perpetrated by the GID over a decade ago by the UN special rapporteur on torture,166 and evidently persists: Four detainees or their families whom we interviewed in Jordan told Human Rights Watch that GID officers beat them with bamboo sticks on the lower parts of the legs and on the soles of the feet. The young Jordanian Palestinian from the Schneller refugee camp told Human Rights Watch: “I was beaten many times on the legs.”167 Mustafa R. told Human Rights Watch that he was subjected to falaqa twice within one week in 2004, each time for about 30 minutes. He told Human Rights Watch: “I was beaten on the lower parts of my legs and on the soles of my feet until they bled. When I didn’t answer a question they would beat me harder.”168

Two detainees separately reported an associated form of torture, the “salt and vinegar walk.” In the large 20-by-40 meter hall where they said torture took place, they described how an officer would pour vinegar on the ground and pour salt on top in a small circle in part of the hall. “Then they forced me to walk around this circle for about five minutes with my bare feet, which were bleeding from the falaqa,” Mustafa R. said.169 When the interrogators and torturers were not satisfied with a particular session, the torture would culminate in this practice, before the detainee received medical attention.170

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi’s son, Muhammad al-Barqawi, told us how the GID had called him for questioning and beat him. He told Human Rights Watch: “In early 2003, in February or March, the GID asked me to come, after I had returned from `umra [the lesser pilgrimage] in Saudi Arabia. I was beaten with an electric cable, but only for a few hours.”171 Ahmad Muhammad Sadiq Abu Nujila told Human Rights Watch that during his arrest in 2002 “the [GID] interrogators whacked me around while they questioned me about my brother, but mostly to scare me.”172

Three former detainees, two of whom suffered torture, told Human Rights Watch that they regularly heard screaming from their cells, which one inmate said were close to the “torture room.”173 One said that he heard “screams and the sounds of beatings from the hall” where he himself had been tortured, a few yards down from his cell. He thought that this was done on purpose to frighten other detainees.174 Another said that from his cell he regularly heard screams at night.175

Former detainees also report experiencing at the hands of the GID other practices that are cruel, inhuman and degrading. Four detainees reported being forced to sit rigidly straight for hours, without moving. When they did move, an officer would beat them.176 Two persons reported having to squat or stand in uncomfortable positions, one for thirty hours;177 and one other detainee said officers forced him to undress fully during interrogations.178 Insults were common, from vulgar expressions to specific personal insults about the family. Two detainees reported being threatened with “being taken downstairs,” which they said they understood to mean torture.179

In describing their interrogations, former detainees said that there were rarely less than three to four persons present, and sometimes up to seven or even eight persons. Two detainees described how interrogators called four to five other officers, dressed in military uniform, with their faces masked, to take detainees for interrogation. They would escort the detainee to a hall on the lower floor of the building, accompanied by the initial interrogators who wore civilian clothes.180 Both groups participated in torture, Mustafa R. told Human Rights Watch, but only the plainclothes interrogators asked questions.

Participation of medical doctors

Two detainees told Human Rights Watch that medical personnel were present inside the GID central detention facility.181 Mustafa R. described how interrogators took him to what he called a medical room “right around the corner” from the hall where they had just tortured him.182 The two doctors who attended to his wounds did not ask about how he had sustained those injuries. After a second session, one of the doctors asked, “Was it very bad today?”183 They did not give the detainee their names.

The United Nations General Assembly has agreed Principles of Medical Ethics. The Principles consider it:

a gross contravention of medical ethics, as well as an offence under applicable international instruments, for health personnel, particularly physicians, to engage, actively or passively, in acts which constitute participation in, complicity in, incitement to or attempts to commit torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.184

Medical treatment of a detainee after torture does not violate this principle, unless, for example, the doctors treat the person so that torture can resume sooner. But medical doctors have a responsibility to report abuse they witness.185

A medical professional should only consider not reporting indications of abuse if doing so would breach the confidentiality of his or her patient, or if it would further endanger the patient. If the doctor is a witness to a pattern of abuse, considerations of patient safety must be weighed against the risk or likelihood of future abuse.

The doctors at the GID central detention facility cannot but know what violations lead to the injuries they treat, yet they do not seem to have raised it successfully with the GID director or with other executive or judicial authorities. Fathi Abu Nassar, the president of the Freedoms Committee of the Professional Associations, including the Medical Association, was not aware of such protestations, whether in private or public.186 According to the head of the Jordanian Medical Association, the doctors who work at the GID are military officers. GID prisoners who require medical attention are taken to the Royal Medical Services, not the al-Bashir hospital which treats inmates of other prisons.187 Detainees at the GID, as in any detention facility, should enjoy a right to request or petition a judicial or other authority for a second medical examination or opinion.188

Solitary confinement

In each of the sixteen cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, the GID held the detainee in solitary confinement.189 Prison practice worldwide recognizes legitimate preventive reasons for segregating inmates, for example, for a prisoner’s own protection from imminent harm, or where a prisoner has a history of attempted escapes or violent behavior. Prison administrations may also place inmates in isolation to address a public health threat. But solitary confinement appears to be the routine mode of detention at the GID, not an extraordinary measure.

The GID isolates suspects from the moment they enter the GID detention facility. Muhammad `Ali Shaqfa described the procedure to Human Rights Watch. He said that GID officers confiscated all his belongings and made him wear a blue prison uniform. After recording his personal details in one office, they blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to his cell. Peering from under his blindfold, he saw that all the hatches on the cell doors had been closed so that other detainees could not see who was walking by.190 Mustafa R. said that he was always blindfolded and handcuffed when officers transferred him from his cell to the interrogation room or the torture room downstairs.191 Once in his cell, verbal communication with cell neighbors was forbidden, he said.

The GID held Muzaffar al-Jawabira in solitary confinement for around three months.192 Others remained in solitary confinement for shorter periods before being released. During that time, they did not have contact with other detainees or eat with them. The cells are about two-by-four meters, and have a toilet, a bed, and a wash basin, but no windows.193

The evidence suggests that the GID uses solitary confinement regularly and, at least in these sixteen cases, exclusively. Detainees ate their meals inside their cells, where they were held around the clock in isolation, interrupted only by interrogations and occasional short exposures to sunlight, lasting ten to thirty minutes every other day at the most, also in isolation.194 One detainee said he was taken outside for fresh air every two or three days for about ten minutes, accompanied by guards.195 Another said guards took him outside every five days or so, for half an hour.196

International norms require that stricter forms of isolation be imposed only after establishing that less drastic means are unavailable to meet the need. They also require regular and transparent reviews of confinement in isolation.197 The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has argued that prolonged, consecutive solitary confinement can constitute ill-treatment:

The principle of proportionality calls for a balance to be struck between the requirement of the situation and the imposition of a solitary confinement-type regime, which can have very harmful consequences for the person concerned. Solitary confinement can in certain circumstances amount to inhuman and degrading treatment; in any event, all forms of solitary confinement should last for as short a time as possible.198

Jordan’s Law on Correctional and Rehabilitation Centers, which the GID does not in practice apply to its detention facility, allows for a maximum of seven days of solitary confinement without visitation.199

Three families told Human Rights Watch of the suffering of their detainee relatives in custody and their continuing psychological problems. One mother said that her son, ever since having spent twenty-seven days in solitary confinement, sleeps all day and has become listless. This young man, from a poor family in the Schneller Palestinian refugee camp outside Rusaifa, agreed to speak to Human Rights Watch but found it hard to talk about details of his ordeal.200




162 U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005: Jordan,” March 8, 2006, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61691.htm [accessed August 8, 2006]: “Government officials denied many allegations of detainee abuse, pointing out that many defendants claimed abuse in order to shift the focus away from their crimes. During the year defendants in nearly every case before the Security Court alleged that they were tortured while in custody.”

163 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Basim F., Amman, September 15, 2005.

164 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

165 For example, Human Rights Watch in May 2006 spoke by telephone to a former detainee shortly after he had been released without charge who alleged that GID officers tortured him during his one-month detention there. He also alleged that the GID ill-treated around a dozen others whom the GID arrested at the same time. Amnesty International in April 2006 documented cases of alleged torture by the GID in January 2006, see “Jordan: Amnesty International calls for investigation into alleged torture and ill treatment of detainees,” Public Statement, AI Index: MDE 16/004/2006, May 4, 2006, http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE160042006?open&of=ENG-2MD (accessed July 14, 2006).

166 In 1995 the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture found in regard to the GID that “During such periods of incommunicado detention, incidents of torture or ill-treatment were reported to occur. Beatings, including falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet), were said to be administered in an underground corridor known as Saha, within GID headquarters in Amman.” See UN Economic and Social Council, Human Rights Commission, “Question Of The Human Rights Of All Persons Subjected To Any Form Of Detention Or Imprisonment, In Particular: Torture And Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, Submitted Pursuant to Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1992/32,” E/CN.4/1995/34, January 12, 1995.

167 Human Rights Watch interview with young Jordanian Palestinian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

168 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

169 Ibid.

170 Human Rights Watch interview with young Palestinian Jordanian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

171 Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad al-Barqawi, Rusaifa, September 13, 2005.

172 Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmad Abu Nujila, Zarqa, September 15, 2005.

173 Human Rights Watch interviews with Muhammad `Ali Shaqfa, Rusaifa, September 15, 2005; with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005; and with young Jordanian Palestinian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

174 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

175 Human Rights Watch interview with young Palestinian Jordanian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

176 Human Rights Watch interviews with Rami S. and Muhammad M., Amman, January 8, 2006; with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005; and with Ahmad Abu Nujila, Zarqa, September 15, 2005.

177 Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad M., Amman, January 8, 2006.

178 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

179 Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad `Ali Shaqfa, Rusaifa, September 15, 2005, and Muhammad M., Amman, January 8, 2006.

180 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005; with Mahdi Zaidan, Irbid, September 22, 2005; and with young Palestinian Jordanian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

181 See also National Center for Human Rights, “The National Center for Human Rights Visits the General Intelligence Department,” December 14, 2005 (Arabic), http://www.nchr.org.jo/ar/pages.php?menu_id=&local_type=1&local_id=34&local_details=1&local_details1=&localsite_branchname=NCHR (accessed May 12, 2006).

182 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

183 Ibid.

184 Principle 2, United Nations General Assembly, Principles of Medical Ethics, Resolution 37/194, December 18, 1982.

185 Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“Istanbul Protocol”), August 9, 1999. The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 55/89 of February 22, 2001, drew the attention of governments to the Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Istanbul Principles) emanating from the Istanbul Protocol.

186 Human Rights Watch Interview with Fathi Abu Nassar, President of the Freedoms Committee of the Professional Associations, Amman, July 1, 2006.

187 Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Hashim Abu Hassan, Amman, June 25, 2006.

188 Principle 25, Body of Principles.

189 A lawyer told the organization that “many” of the detainees are put in solitary confinement. Human Rights Watch interviews with Samih Khrais, Amman, September 10 and 21, 2005.

190 Human Rights Watch interview with Muhammad `Ali Shaqfa, Rusaifa, September 15, 2005.

191 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005, and with young Jordanian Palestinian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

192 Human Rights Watch interview with Shaikh al-Jawabira, Rusaifa, September 13, 2005. Shaikh al-Jawabirah was on the telephone to Muzaffar to confirm details during the course of the interview.

193 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005, with Muhammad `Ali Shaqfa, Rusaifa, September 15, 2005, and with young Palestinian Jordanian, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.

194 Human Rights Watch interviews with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005, and with Rami S., Amman, January 8, 2006.

195 Human Rights Watch interview with Mustafa R., Amman, September 20, 2005.

196 Human Rights Watch interview with Rami S., Amman, January 8, 2006.

197 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), Report to the Icelandic Government on the Visit to Iceland, conducted between 6 and 12 July 1993, Strasbourg, France, 28 June 1994, CPT/Inf (94) 8, p. 26, http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/isl/1994-08-inf-eng.htm#II.B.3 (accessed June 8, 2006).

198 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 2nd General Report, CPT/Inf(92)3, p.20.

199 Art. 38.d., Prison law.

200 Human Rights Watch interview with young Palestinian Jordanian and his elderly parents, Schneller refugee camp, Rusaifa, September 14, 2005.