By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Florida based company, Stinger Systems, has acknowledged that it exports an instrument of  torture known as the “Band-It” to Europe.  The “Band-It” system is attached to a prisoner’s arms or legs and can administer a shock of 50,000 volts.  This report by Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) comes roughly a month after Amnesty International  reported on the loopholes that European firms were using in order to side-step EU bans on trade in torture devices.

Since 2006 the European Union (EU) has had rules in place which outlaw trade in a range of instruments that are expressly used for torture. Stinger Systems’ “Band-It” is among those devices outlawed by the EU. The company’s president, Bob Gruder, refused to say which European countries have purchased the device. Gruder told IPS: “We only sell to military and law enforcement authorities . . . Our products are sold worldwide but we prefer not to disclose where.”

Stinger, formerly known as Stun Tech, has distributed their products in several EU nations. A Romanian company called Gate 4 Business has confirmed that they imported some of the “Band-It” devices.  The company’s spokesman, Cristian Anastesue, said that the company took “a few samples,” but added that under Romanian law, it is considered a “lethal weapon.”

Amnesty International reported in March that firms in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Italy were selling electroshock “sleeves” and “cuffs” capable of delivering 50,000-volt shocks, spiked batons, and fixed wall restraints to countries with checkered human rights records, such as China, Pakistan, and the U.A.E. These firms have gotten around the EU ban on torture devices, which explicitly refers to “stun belts,” by applying different names to products that have a similar effect to a stun belt.

David Nichols, a foreign policy analyst in the Amnesty International office in Brussels, said: “What we have been saying is that there are other devices that have been reclassified or renamed and traded as if they were completely legitimate, even though they have no other use than as torture instruments.”

Sirien, a Belgian company, was named in the report as a Stinger agent in Europe. Sirien ceased advertisement of the S-200 stun gun on its website after the report was published.

In his response to the Amnesty International report, Sirien representative Erwin Lafosse said: “The problem with Amnesty International is that they only see the bad side to everything . . . Yes, these can be used to torture but so can all sorts of ordinary devices like knives, forks and spoons.”

For more information, please see:

IPS – Europe Imports Torture from US – 14 April 2010

Time – Is the European Union Exporting Torture Devices? – 31 March 2010

Amnesty International Report – From Words to Deeds: Making the EU Ban on the Trade in ‘Tools of Torture’ a Reality – 17 March 2010