Water Torture

Water has been used in many different ways throughout history to torture victims. The most popular method is to use water as a means of drowning. The fear of suffocation inspires terror. The act of having one's head immersed in water fills the victim with panic.

Modern torturers have learned that suffocation can be achieved in seconds by slipping a plastic bag over the prisoner's head. In earlier times, torturers simply thrust the victim's head into a bucket of water and held it there. Urine, vomit, feces, and detergent were sometimes adding to the mixture to make it all the more unpleasant.

Other ways water has been used over the centuries:

Drinking by Force--The Inquisition laid a victim flat, wrapped cloth around his (or her) mouth and nostrils so that he could barely breathe, and poured a steady stream of water into his mouth. The water ran down the cloth to the back of the victim's throat, so he had no chance of breathing. He experienced the same agony as a person about to die. When the cloth was taken out so the victim could answer questions, it was covered with water and blood. Like many methods of water torture, drinking by force left no external marks.

The Test of Innocence--The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi decreed charges sorcery should be tested thusly: "If a man has laid a charge of witchcraft and has not justified it, he upon whom the witchcraft is laid shall go to the Holy River; he shall plunge into the Holy River and if the Holy River overcome him, he who accused him shall take to himself his house." The people believed the river would spare the innocent and drown the guilty.

The Assyrians reversed the rules. The guilty were supposed to float, while the innocents began to sink. This version was adopted by Christians in medieval Europe. Prisoners were stripped, bound hand and foot, tied around with a knotted rope, and tossed into the water. The knot floated some distance behind his body. If the prisoner sank far enough for the knot to be dragged under water, he was presumed innocent and pulled to safety--sometimes. Many were drowned in the process of establishing their innocence. These practices lasted well into the 1700's.

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