Torture in Mauritania 'routine'

Amnesty said Mauritanian prisoners are tortured to extract "confessions"

Torture of prisoners in Mauritania - including electric shocks, burnings and sexual violence - is "routine and systematic", a rights group says.

In a report, Amnesty International says anti-terror laws introduced three years ago have led to increased use of torture of terror suspects.

Research for the report was conducted before August's coup.

Amnesty notes the generals who seized power say ending the "terrorist menace" is one of their main priorities.

Africa's newest oil producer held its first free elections last year, but General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz led a military coup on 6 August.

Amnesty said abuses by security forces were used to extract "confessions", which were then admitted as evidence in court.

Government officials in the north-west African nation could not immediately be reached for comment on the allegations.

For years Mauritania has dealt with low-level violence which its governments have blamed on terrorists.

In late 2007, gunmen allegedly linked to al-Qaeda murdered four French tourists, prompting organisers of the famous Dakar Rally to cancel this year's race.

Last month, three men were sentenced to 10 years in prison for reportedly belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - accused of staging attacks across North Africa in recent years.

'Truncheons and toothpicks'

The rights group said it had documented numerous forms of torture, including "sleep deprivation, cigarette burns, the suspension of detainees from a metal bar, blows and psychological torture".

Gen Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz led August's coup

The report also contains allegations that prisoners are urinated on, have their hair pulled out and are victims of sexual violence, involving truncheons and toothpicks.

"Torture is used against all categories of prisoners in Mauritania - whether they are suspected Islamists, soldiers accused of involvement in a coup, or those detained for simple ordinary crimes," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's Mauritania researcher.

Amnesty said threats were made to prisoners prior to a visit by the rights group earlier this year.

The report quotes one prisoner as saying: "When they told us about Amnesty International's visit, the guards threatened us.

"They said that we could say whatever we liked, but that we would regret it, because the Amnesty people would be leaving, but we prisoners would be staying there with them.'"

The country's "heritage" of torture had evolved from decades of one-party rule and dictatorship, the report said.