BRIEFS: Penitentiary system

Report says police torture prisoners

The state penitentiary system and the Policía Nacional (PN) admitted yesterday that there have been cases of torture in some of the country's prisons, but not as many as alleged in a recent report from the Defensoría del Pueblo.

Luis Gordon, director of the Sistema Penitenciario, acknowledged “a couple of cases” and said they were brought before the Ministerio Público, and the people involved were dismissed.

“We do not allow torture nor overlook it,” he insisted when confronted with details of the report, which cites at least 93 cases of torture in the last four years.

Gordon acknowledged that there are irregularities in the prisons, but said that there is no record of so many cases of torture.

PN spokesperson Eduardo Lim Yueng said that 37 cases were reported between 2007 and June 27, 2008. All those, he added, are under investigation or were remanded to the Ministerio Público, including the most recent case of Daniel Vela, a prisoner who was beaten to death after escaping.

The methods of torture singled out in the Defensoría's report include the use of shackles, beatings, psychological abuse, and partial suffocation.