Strappado

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For other uses, see Strappado (disambiguation).

Strappado is a form of torture in which a victim is suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to his hands which are tied behind his back, in which the arms are most likely dislocated. Weights may be added to the body. Other names for strappado include "reverse hanging" and "Palestinian hanging". It is best known for its use in the Medieval Inquisition, but the practice continues in the modern era.^[1]^[2]

Artwork depicting strappado. Note the hanging weights from the victim's ankles.

1 Variants
2 History
3 Modern instances
4 References

[edit] Variants

There are three variants of this torture. In the first one, the victim has his or her arms tied behind his or her back; a large rope is then tied to his or her wrists and passed over a pulley, beam or a hook on the roof. The torturer pulls on this rope until the victim is hanging from his or her arms. Since he or she has the hands tied behind the back, this will cause a very intense pain and possible dislocation of the arms. The full weight of the subject's body is then supported by the extended and internally-rotated shoulder sockets. While the technique shows no external injuries, it can cause long-term nerve, ligament, or tendon damage. The technique typically causes brachial plexus injury, leading to paralysis or loss of sensation in the arm.

The second variation is similar to the first, but a series of drops is added. In addition to the damage caused by the suspension, the fall from the suspended height would cause major stress to the extended and vulnerable arms, leading to broken shoulders. It is believed that Niccolò Machiavelli, during his 1513 imprisonment after allegedly conspiring against the Medici family in Florence, was subjected to this form of strappado.

In the third variant, the victim's hands are tied to the front. The victim is also hung from the hands, but his or her ankles are tied and a heavy weight is attached to them. This will cause pain and possible damage not only to the arms, but also to the legs and hips. This variant was known as "squassation".

[edit] History

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[edit] Modern instances

The first variant described above (or similar) has been used by the Nazis at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The television documentary series Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi state by Laurence Rees (U.K. title: Auschwitz: The Nazis and the "Final Solution") contains an account of this "hanging torture" by surviving victim Jerzy Bielecki, who was subjected to it on suspicion of being a member of the Polish resistance:

He wanted to hang me on the hook. He said, "Stand up on your toes." Finally he hooked me and then he kicked the stool away without any warning. I just felt Jesus Mary, oh my God, the terrible pain. My shoulders were breaking out from the joints. Both arms were breaking out from the joints. I'd been moaning and he just said, "Shut up you dog. You deserve it. You have to suffer."^[3]

The Nazis' use of this "hanging torture" has been taken as the basis of a statue on display at the Auschwitz visitors' center, which combines representations of a victim and of a part of the camp's barbed-wire fencing to form the shape of a swastika.^[4]

The technique has also been used by security forces of Turkey. In 1996, the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of torture for its use of Palestinian hanging.^[5] Turkey has been admonished by Amnesty International and other international human rights groups concerning the use of the technique.

In November 2003, Manadel al-Jamadi, a prisoner of the U.S., was killed during an interrogation session at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in which the method was allegedly used on him. (His corpse, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice, was seen in one of the photographs that broke the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.) The U.S. military has ruled the death a homicide.^[6]

One commentator has written,

The Associated Press quoted an expert who described the position in which Jamadi died as a form of torture known as “Palestinian hanging,” in which a prisoner whose hands are secured behind his back is suspended by his arms. (The technique has allegedly been used [by Israeli soldiers] in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)^[7]