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Torture

Types of Torture and Ill-treatment

Human Rights Watch’s research in 2007 indicates that torture and ill-treatment of prisoners by guards remained a widespread and regular occurrence throughout Jordan’s prisons. We found evidence of abuse in all seven of Jordan’s 10 prisons that we visited. Among the 110 prisoners we interviewed, 66 told us that they had experienced some form of torture or ill-treatment at the hands of guards. We saw physical evidence of such abuse in ten instances, in addition to bruises on 20 Tanzimat⁴ prisoners following collective beatings on August 22, 2007.

Jordan acceded to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1991, and, shortly before the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to Jordan, published the convention in the Official Gazette on June 15, 2006, giving it the force of law. The CAT defines torture as

any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.⁵

In October 2007, the government amended Article 208 of the Penal Code to incorporate the definition of torture, making it a crime under domestic law for the first time. Officials convicted of torture face a prison sentence of between six months and three years. If torture results in illness or injury, the penalty increases to a possible life-sentence.⁶ The law does not criminalize ill-treatment.

Whether or not torture occurs at a prison appears to be within the control of the prison director. New directors at Salt (Balqa’), Aqaba, and Juwaida prisons were apparently able to put an almost complete stop to torture following their arrival. Prison directors spend as little as a few weeks, and rarely more than one year at a prison before reassignment to a different posting in the PSD, usually outside the prison service. In Salt prison, Ali said: “We have a new director now for one month, but two to three weeks before he came, the [previous] director and the guards beat me on the head with plastic sticks that had iron inside, after suspending me in the holding pen from both hands.”⁷

Torture chiefly takes the form of beatings and suspension by the wrists. According to prisoners’ accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch, guards administer beatings mostly in and around the cage-like holding pen made of iron bars located in every prison near the control room between the administration building and the prison wings. This area is monitored by closed circuit video cameras. Occasionally, guards beat prisoners inside the wards, sometimes in corridors, especially around the solitary confinement cells, in rooms of the administration building, as well as in open areas, inmates told us.⁸ Prisoner Armand said, “The guards who take us to court beat us on the way there.”⁹ Prisoners’ hands are cuffed behind their backs for court or hospital transports. Prisoners often remain shackled for hours inside the back of a truck, awaiting their turn or until the last of the group finishes his court hearings before returning to prison.¹⁰

Guards torture prisoners in an apparent attempt to punish them for perceived infractions of prison rules or for inconveniencing the guard. Ghaith, a Qafqafa prisoner gave Human Rights Watch an account of abuse he had suffered:

Five days ago, guards beat me with the padlock on the door to our ward because I went to the toilet with the wrong clothes. Guard [name withheld] and two other guards beat me with the lock and their keys. Then they took me to the gate, hung me by the wrists with two separate handcuffs, spreading my arms out between two window grilles, and punched me in my stomach and chest. When the [International Committee of the Red] Cross came for a visit, they hid me in the computer room for one hour.¹¹

Human Rights Watch interviewed seven inmates who told us they had been abused by guards who perceived them to have broken a rule or annoyed them with a request. Three prisoners in Muwaqqar, Juwaida and Qafqafa described to Human Rights Watch the types of unprovoked reasons that led to a beating. Muwaqqar inmate Lu’ai said that “another prisoner told the guards I was going to bring back drugs from a court hearing. When I came back, they suspended me in the holding cell by my left arm, high up. They slapped me.”¹² Nu’man, a Juwaida inmate said that “August 13 was the last time they beat me. Because I have a beard and look religious, I sometimes get picked on and beaten.”¹³ A Qafqafa inmate, Qais, said that “sometimes guards provoke inmates by insulting them. They carry sticks and cables and hit them when they respond.”¹⁴ We observed the raw skin on the wrists of a prisoner, Rafiq, in Swaqa who said: “I was cuffed to the holding pen for two hours and beaten several weeks ago with two others for having an [illegal] cell phone.”¹⁵

Where two prisoners get into a fight, inmates we interviewed told us that guards would torture both.¹⁶ Human Rights Watch observed raw areas of skin on the wrists of another prisoner in Muwaqqar, Luqman, who said that

Three days ago, two prisoners were fighting and the guards separated them. I was sitting behind the two prisoners, but the guards took all of us, me and four others, to the solitary [confinement] cells. The guards handcuffed us and beat us. They hit me with cables, sticks and hoses. The guards usually carry sticks, about half a meter long, but not when visitors come. The cables are three cables wrapped together, big and thick. After beating us, they handcuffed us to the iron bars, with our arms stretching way up high. They left us there from 12 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next morning. The guards would walk by and hit us. My hands became numb.¹⁷

Even where a prisoner in Salt had admitted being responsible for injuring a fellow prisoner who had insulted him, guards chose to torture him instead of initiating disciplinary or criminal proceedings against him. In this incident, four days before Human Rights Watch’s visit, prisoner Ghalib said,

The guards hung me from both wrists, cuffed to the iron gate downstairs at the entrance to the prison, for two hours. All prisoners saw me as they were going to get breakfast. Around seven masked guards, I think from the perimeter guards, beat me with a half meter long stick, mostly on the back. I asked for a doctor, but was refused.¹⁸

If a prisoner does not stand to attention quickly enough during roll call, guards may beat him.¹⁹ Prisoner ‘Amr at Swaqa prison gave us the following account of abuse he had witnessed of a fellow inmate:

At 1.30 p.m. on July 26, eight guards entered the ward and asked a prisoner to shout his own name, he refused because of his [unwell] mental state. He told the guards that he already knows his name and that it is written on the door outside. He was taken outside his cell … and the eight guards started beating him up with a thick black stick and electric cables. Then he was dragged by the feet to the ground floor, with his head banging across the walls and on the stairs. We heard him screaming from there an hour later.²⁰

Human Rights Watch visited the inmate who had been beaten one month later. Physical evidence of his abuse was still visible; we saw swellings above his eye and bruises on his head, but he was unable to communicate with us.²¹

A prisoner who speaks back to an officer also risks a beating. Guards have beaten prisoners who press demands and complaints, such as seeing a doctor or better food. For example, prisoner Humaidan at Aqaba told Human Rights Watch: “I said [to the guard that] I wanted to make a phone call. I haven’t called in 17 days. The Preventive Security officer slapped me. I wanted to cut myself in protest, and he slapped me again.”²² Another prisoner, Laith, said that

officers beat me two months ago after I asked to go to the doctor. It was 10 a.m. on a Wednesday. I said I’ll complain if you don’t let me go. After I said that, they took me to the holding pen. They put a handcuff on each wrist and suspended me from the iron gate until sunset. Then they put me in the automobile repair room, which is under ground, for one hour, and 10 officers beat me.²³

Eight prisoners told us that guards had cuffed their hands above their heads to a high bar, sometimes with their feet not touching the ground, and sometimes with their arms cuffed behind their back in the style of the so-called “Palestinian hanging” (strappado).Guards then beat the defenseless prisoners whether or not fully suspended with one of three preferred tools: several electrical cables twisted together and knotted at the end, a rubber hose, or sticks, clubs and truncheons.²⁴ Sometimes, guards punch prisoners with their fists or kick them with their boots.²⁵ To wake up prisoners who pass out, guards sometimes splash them with cold water.²⁶ Prisoner Lu’ai in Muwaqqar said that

One month ago, the guards beat a prisoner terribly. They put him under the stairs, and three or four guards beat him mercilessly. They tie knots in plastic electrical cables to make it hurt more when they beat you.²⁷

Although prisoners we interviewed usually identified one guard as a lead torturer, they also identified more than one guard as having been involved. In some prisons, prisoners told us that guards prepared a “welcome party” for new arrivals, beating each one in the holding pen where they spend the initial hours or days prior to their classification and distribution to a particular wing. Prisoner Dawud at Muwaqqar told Human Rights Watch that “on Saturdays, new detainees are brought here. They receive a welcome party. Two weeks ago, 70 came, and the guards lined them up and beat them all. I was one of those beaten.”²⁸ Talib, a prisoner at Salt, who had been to Muwaqqar, confirmed the welcome parties, saying that,

‘Amir al-Qutaish, is a prison wing chief in the control room of Muwaqqar. He is a bit fat. I arrived on a Saturday, and he put me and 24 others in the reception cell. There, he beat us with cables and plastic sticks.²⁹

Three prisoners at Qafqafa separately told Human Rights Watch of mass beatings on June 21 or 24 of 2007. One prisoner, Khalid, said that “100 masked security officers from ‘Team 14’ came to search our ward. This was not a search; it was designed to teach us a lesson. They came and beat us all. They were vicious.”³⁰

In five prisons, Salt, Swaqa, Juwaida, Qafqafa, and Muwaqqar, inmates told us that the director participated in such abuse.³¹ A prisoner, ‘Umar, at Muwaqqar said, “They beat [this prisoner] terribly because he didn’t want to shave his hair. He’s a new inmate. The director himself stepped on him while guards held him down and cut his hair.”³² Another prisoner at Muwaqqar, Walid, said that “last Wednesday, I beat another inmate over a drugs dispute in the dining hall at lunch. They took me into the corridor and suspended me from handcuffs and beat me heavily. The director was there and watched. There were about three to four guards.”³³

Abuses Against Islamist Tanzimat—State Security Prisoners

Torture by prison guards of common prisoners appeared to occur in response to perceived infractions or in retaliation for complaints. Torture by prison guards of Islamist Tanzimat prisoners, however, at times took the form of collective beatings. These prisoners, of whom there were about 120 in October 2007, in Juwaida and Swaqa prisons, recount that guards and sometimes the director frequently abuse them and occasionally torture them in response to protests or riots. On at least three occasions all or nearly all of the Tanzimat prisoners were tortured, twice in Swaqa, and once in Juwaida. Furthermore, prison authorities house Tanzimat prisoners in small-group isolation, a psychologically stressful environment. They separate these inmates from the general population supposedly to prevent their indoctrination of the general population.³⁴

The Tanzimat prisoners have on a number of occasions held violent protests, and authorities regard them as a difficult, hostile prison population. Prison guards in Swaqa and Juwaida and two prison directors said that Islamist prisoners frequently protest and insult guards, including by spitting on them.³⁵ Some of the Tanzimat protests have indeed been violent. Riots broke out among the Tanzimat of Juwaida, Swaqa and Qafqafa in March and April 2006, following which the government closed the Qafqafa Tanzimat section. In Juwaida, in March 2006, Tanzimat prisoners took hostage the director of prisons, who had come to negotiate, and reportedly beat him.³⁶ In Qafqafa, in April 2008 (?), special forces stormed the prison’s Tanzimat wing, where prisoners also reportedly held two officers hostage.³⁷

At other times, the Tanzimat prisoners have staged more peaceful protests. In Swaqa, in August 2006, Tanzimat prisoners went on a two-day hunger strike to protest their ill-treatment.³⁸ In July 2007, Swaqa Tanzimat prisoners again went on hunger strike to protest the withdrawal of visiting privileges and the confiscation of books and other belongings, including a mobile telephone not allowed by the prison, following the escape of two Tanzimat prisoners from Juwaida reportedly with the help of a guard in June of that year.³⁹

In response to the Juwaida escape and the Swaqa protests, guards carried out collective attacks on the Tanzimat prison population. Inmates told us that guards wearing face masks and carrying thick truncheons entered the Swaqa Tanzimat cells on June 23, July 5, July 26, and July 27 of 2007, carrying out intrusive, violent full-body searches, insulting prisoners, and shaving their hair as part of degrading treatment.⁴⁰ On July 28, during another search, inmates said that masked guards accompanied by four officers entered the cells, pushed the prisoners toward the wall, carried out a full-body search and ordered the prisoners to shout “long live the king,” while flogging them with knotted electrical cables on the backs.⁴¹ The Tanzimat prisoners, who ideologically oppose the king, refused, and guards poured cold water over them, adding soap to the cement floor so that the prisoners slipped and fell when they tried to dodge the flogging.⁴² One inmate, Thamir, said that “at the end, the [guards’] arms got so weary, they started using their feet to beat us on the floor.”⁴³

A hunger strike by Swaqa Tanzimat prisoners demanding to see a doctor was successful that day. The next day, on July 29, however, the inmates said that guards forced them to sign a statement that they had attacked the guards first the day before The director then prevented all family visits to the Tanzimat prisoners for one month.⁴⁴ On July 30, inmates told us that the guards again slapped some of the Tanzimat prisoners and beat them with truncheons and cables.⁴⁵

On August 22, 2007, one day after the first Human Rights Watch visit to Swaqa, Majid al-Rawashda became the new director at Swaqa prison. That day, he entered the cells of the prison with a group of prison guards and beat all or nearly all of the inmates, according to testimony Human Rights Watch obtained from inmates during a return trip to the prison on August 26. Inmates said beatings started in the afternoon and did not stop until late at night. Accounts from Tanzimat and ordinary prisoners concerning that day’s events indicate that Tanzimat prisoners received particularly harsh treatment. Human Rights Watch was able to see the marks of beatings on the backs of six Tanzimat prisoners and on the arms and legs of another fourteen Tanzimat prisoners.

Prisoners’ injuries consisted most commonly of bruises, between 20 and 40 centimeters long, and two to four centimeters wide. Almost all were diagonally across the back, covering the shoulder blades. The color of the bruising ranged from deep purple to light green and light yellow. In addition to these bruises, marks from injuries included long, thin red lines on the backs, necks, arms and legs of prisoners, where they said they were beaten with cables. The skin appeared superficially lacerated. Some prisoners also had bright red spots on their skin, mostly around the thighs, where they said guards had hit them with an improvised whip with a metal ball bearing as a tip. A physically disabled prisoner who could not stand well told Human Rights Watch how guards stuffed paper into his mouth until he gagged because he could not stand up to face the wall.⁴⁶

The director, who wore a face mask but who some Tanzimat prisoners recognized from their time together in Juwaida prison, also carried an electric shock instrument, a stick with a handle and a cylindrical device on top, although he did not use it.⁴⁷ One prisoner said, “The director grabbed me by the beard and said, ‘Don’t complain’.”⁴⁸ Following the beatings, the prison director ordered their hair and beards shaved. One guard told a prisoner, “We will shave even your eyebrows.”⁴⁹ On their way down the stairs to the barber, guards further beat the prisoners. One prisoner said he saw a guard there whose clothing was covered in blood.⁵⁰

In Juwaida prison, Human Rights Watch again documented a significant episode of collective punishment of the Tanzimat prison population. On June 19, 2007, two Tanzimat prisoners successfully escaped, apparently with the help of a guard.⁵¹ Following the escape, prison guards tortured the remaining Tanzimat prisoners, according to the testimony of eleven inmates. They reserved particularly harsh treatment for two other Tanzimat prisoners who attempted to escape, but were caught, and another wanted Islamist caught on a bus with one of the escapees.⁵² One of them described to Human Rights Watch how guards tortured him for days, forcing him to crawl along an internal corridor, licking the floor while being repeatedly beaten.⁵³

Another prisoner told Human Rights Watch how after the escape

Special forces put a black bag on my head and banged my head into the walls, saying ‘Watch where you’re going!’ Masked Preventive Security guards slapped me for thirty minutes and said, ‘Now here’s a good party for you.’ They took me to the corridor, made me roll down it like a football, then stand up, then made me spin around on the ground on my face. All the while, they beat me with a stick. Later they beat me on the soles of my feet [فلقة] and on my hands.⁵⁴

Another Juwaida prisoner said that after the escape, guards “put their shoes in my mouth and made me pretend to have sex with my mattress.⁵⁵ A third Tanzimat prisoner said that guards beat him “for one month with every meal.”⁵⁶ A fourth prisoner said that guards made him fill up his water bottle in the cell by filling and refilling only the cap of his bottle by reaching through a narrow opening in the cell door to a large bottle placed outside.⁵⁷

The PSD replaced the director of Juwaida following the escape, but other officers involved in the torture of the inmates remained in place, a prisoner, Yasir, told Human Rights Watch, including those he identified as torturers.⁵⁸