Fig 2: Police brutalising unknown victims Photo: Courtesy of Newsday Police brutality constitutes torture, defined as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed; such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity”. The numerous injuries arising from the torture included the following: - psychological trauma - eye, dental and chest traumas - depression/mood disorder - soft tissue injury - trauma to buttocks - head injury - sepsis infection - genital injury 11