**Euro MPs have heard claims that EU companies are exporting equipment used for torture despite legislation aimed at preventing such trade.**Amnesty International has published a report detailing the claims, and was briefing the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights.
The equipment includes thumbscrews and sleeves that give electric shocks.
Amnesty said firms from Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and Italy were among those trading the items.
However, it also said that only seven of 27 EU member states had publicly reported such exports.
Amnesty, which co-published the report with the Omega Research Foundation, said companies were using legal loopholes to evade restrictions introduced by a 2006 law.
‘No monitoring’
Some of the items in question are designed for torture or other forms of ill-treatment, and are banned by the legislation.
Others, which are designed or marketed for use by medical or security officials, are considered “dual use”, and their trade is meant to be monitored.
Amnesty said several EU member states had authorised the export of policing weapons and restraints to countries where it had documented the use of such equipment in torture.
Amenesty’s David Nichols stressed the importance of monitoring where the equipment was ending up.
“Pepper spray is a legitimate security device, however if a company or country is exporting pepper spray to a country where there is evidence of it being used for torture in the past, that should ring alarm bells,” he told the BBC.
“There’s been absolutely no monitoring of the implementation of the regulation,” he added.
“We’re hoping that the MEPs will be able to put pressure on the Commission and member states to do their job.”
He said countries to which the equipment had been exported included Pakistan, Senegal, Georgia, Mongolia, and China.