A MODERN INQUISITION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10919, 13 March 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

A MODERN INQUISITION.

REPORTED TORTURES AT RIGA.

A harrowing story of torture, said to have been systematically carried on m the Riga Prison, is told m the Berliii Vorwarts by a political prisoner, who gives the names of sixteen persons, who. he declares, have undergone it. Thi allegations is that torture is carried on every night of the week, except Sundays, from 10 p.m. or midnight till about six iii the morning, m a special chamber on the second floor of the prison con taining all sorts of instruments of torture, such as rubber sticks, pincers, long pins, etc., as well as a rack, on .which the victim is stretched, bound hand ar.d foot, with a wet rag over his mouth It is done m the presence of spies and police, and not infrequently m that ci higher dignitaries and the local nobiltj who constitute the "Self-defence League." Thus on November 29 torture was used m the presence of Baron Raden. the district chief, and at another time under the eyes of Baron Rekke, the yeEuted organiser of the pogrom at Tukum. The modus operandi is said to be as follows : The victim is brought into tha room and stripped of all his clothes. He is then told to name his friends and "accomplices." Should he refuse, thoy stretch him on the rack and give him a number of strokes with a rubber stick — sometimes several hundred. With a view to heightening the pain salt is often strewn over the wounds, and the flogging continues till the victim becomes senseless. He is then brought back to his senses and again asked to name his accomplices. If he continues to be obstinate they tear out his nails and his hair, and pierce through his hands and feet with long pins: Should this again prove of no avail the torturers tear out pieces of flesh from his body with hot pincers, knock out his teeth, aud perform other indescribable cruelties. The, writer then tells the story of one Griming, 24 years old, who proved "obstinate' to tho last and underwent the whole ; series of torture from the first stage to the last. The inquisition m this case lasted three weeks) aftei' which the victim was handed to a court-martial and shot. All the hair from his beard was plucked out, and hair on his head turned grey. His face was horribly mutilated, m many places the skin was torn or scraped off, arid his spine and several ribs broken. v