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Amnesty tells EU to stop selling torture

AMNESTY International called on the European Union yesterday to apply its own Torture Trade Regulation and stop the “marketing and promotion” of torture instruments.

The rights charity published a report outlining how legal loopholes have allowed “potential tools of torture,” including spiked batons, thumbcuffs, weighted leg restraints and spiked shields, to be advertised and even displayed at trade fairs, even though trading in them is banned.

Last year the European Parliament proposed a ban on marketing security equipment which could be used to inflict cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, but the EU’s only elected body lacks the power to initiate legislation and the European Council refused to accept the recommendation.

Amnesty and the Omega Research Foundation are urging the European Council to accept the parliament’s suggestion and “ensure that no person or company trading within EU jurisdiction can in any way profit from the trade in implements of human suffering.”

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