Hague Court: 303 detainees tortured by hanging, beatings and metal implements

Being hung upside down, forced fights between prisoners and beatings until victims lost consciousness were among the forms of torture identified by the Trial Panel.

In its summary of the judgment, the Trial Panel in The Hague described how people held at detention sites under the control of members of the KLA had been tortured and treated cruelly.

According to the document, 348 people were treated cruelly and 303 of them were subjected to torture. In legal terms, the Court found the defendants guilty of torturing 303 people and, separately, of the cruel treatment of 49 people.

The detainees were held in former schools, basements, stables and other facilities that did not provide suitable conditions. In many cases, the spaces were far too small for the number of people kept in them.

Many of them were forced to sleep on concrete floors, while some stayed in mud or among human and animal excrement. At some detention sites, food was unavailable for days at a time, and water, medical treatment and minimum hygienic conditions were not provided.

The Court established that the detainees were repeatedly beaten with rifle butts, sticks, wooden clubs, axe handles, metal rods and electrical cables.

Some were tied by their legs and left hanging upside down before being beaten. Others were forced to fight one another.

The beatings continued until the victims could no longer stand, could barely breathe or lost consciousness. The injuries sustained during these beatings caused the deaths of several people.

Some victims had their fingernails pulled out, while others suffered fractures to their hands, legs, wrists and ribs. There were also people who lost teeth or were left with permanent scars.

In addition to physical violence, the Trial Panel found that psychological torture had also been inflicted. The detainees were forced to listen to the screams of those being beaten, subjected to mock executions and threatened with death.

In certain cases, they were forced to bury the bodies of other detainees. In one case, the body of a person who had committed suicide was left hanging inside the room so that it could be seen by the other detainees.

According to the Court’s findings, these acts were intended to obtain information or confessions, as well as to punish, intimidate, coerce or discriminate against the victims on political and ethnic grounds.

The ruling was issued at first instance and may be appealed. The data are part of the official summary.