TORTURE IN ARGENTINA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7373, 27 January 1902, Page 4

TORTURE IN ARGENTINA.

BRUTAL TREATMENT OF AN

INNOCENT SWISS.

Geneva, December 3.

Great indignation has been caused in Switzerland by the news of the terrible torture to which a Swiss has recently been subjected in Argentina. M. Fontaneliaz, a brother of the victim, writing from Buenos Ayres, says: "On October 15th a large warehouse in the colony of Vera, near Santa Fe, was burnt down, and according to the custom of the country, all the inhabitants were arrested and an inquiry held. M. Fontaneliaz, who had been left in charge by the owner of the warehouse, was also arrested.

" For some ieason or other, the chief of the police suspected him of setting fice to the warehouse, but, unable to obtain any proofs, he decided to employ torture to obtain a confession.

" He was then subjected to the 'Cepo Colombiano,' as employed formerly by tbe Spanish inquisitors. It consists in binding the victim's hands and leg 3 and attaching them to stakes driven in the ground. Then the man is placed in a sitting posture on the ground, a rifle is attached to the back part of hia neck, and two other rifles are passed under his kneee.

" Gradually the head is forced down until the three rifles touch one another, and those are then tied together. The whole weight of the body is thus thrown oa the spine, which often becomes paralysed.

"After undergoing this terrible torture for some time, inquiries proved M, Fontaneliaz to be innocent, and he was set free, but ha is in a very serious state."

The Swiss Consul at Buenos Ayres has actively taken up the matter, and demands the punishment of the police inspector. Meanwhile, the entire Swis3 colony in the vicinity are thrown into a state of terror.