ABSTRACT
A number of sentences have recognised ‘psychological torture’ as an entity in itself. The most cited in international case law is the case of Miguel Angel Estrella, an Argentinian pianist detained and tortured in Uruguay. In their comment, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) (1980)1 quoted him describing psychological torture as occurring in:
threats of torture or violence to relatives or friends, or of extradition to Argentina to be executed, in threats of making us witness the torture of friends, and in inducing in us a state of hallucination in which we thought we could see and hear things which were not real. In my own case, their point of concentration was my hands. For hours upon end, they put me through a mock amputation with an electric saw, telling me, ‘We are going to do the same to you as Victor Jara.’ Amongst the effects from which I suffered as a result were a loss of sensitivity in both arms and hands for eleven months, discomfort that persists in the right thumb, and severe pain in the knees. I reported the fact to a number of military medical officers in the barracks and in the ‘Libertad’ prison. (para 1.6)
