Torture: A personal Account

We discovered that Tom had been in Central all day Friday and had been severely tortured for a period of about 4 hours in the afternoon. He was initially beaten with all of the other guys for about an hour with batons, boots, fists etc... The 4 were returned to the cells and Tom was taken off for special treatment. He was taken to a room in Central and subjected to a series of about 30 - 40 electric shocks while blindfolded, with his hands hand-cuffed behind his back. He was beaten on the soles of his feet, kicked and beaten all over the body. He has severe lacerations on his tongue and mouth where he bit himself while convulsing during the shocks. He cannot eat and has difficulty drinking. His wrists and arms are swollen from the handcuffs which restrained his arms behind his back while our state agents did their patriotic duty. The soles of his feet are so painful he has great difficulty walking. He can't use his hands. When we first saw him he was having difficulty focusing, though this improved towards the end of the day. He is sore all over his body from the kicking and beating.

* An extract from an email by Edwina Spicer, mother of MDC activist Tom Spicer