Equatorial Guinea: Torture is Rife in Country's Prisons, Says UN Expert

19 November 2008

Detainees kept in police custody in Equatorial Guinea are victims of systematic torture, and prisoners suffer inhuman conditions, an independent United Nations human rights expert said in a press statement today, blaming a break down in the country's judicial system.

The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, reported that torture is used by police forces against detainees - political prisoners as well as suspects of common crimes - to extract confessions or information and sometimes as punishment, intimidation or to extort money.

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