The men's anguished descriptions of their abuses come nearly a decade after Sri Lanka's civil war ended and days ahead of a review of the Indian Ocean nation by the UN's top human rights body. The AP reviewed 32 medical and psychological evaluations and interviewed 20 men who said they were accused of trying to revive a rebel group on the losing side of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war. Although combat ended in 2009, they say the torture and abuse occurred from early 2016 to as recently as July this year. Another man described being abducted from home by five men, driven to a prison, and taken to a "torture room" pocked with blood splatters on the wall. Most of the men say they their captors identified themselves as members of the Criminal Investigations Department, a police unit that investigates serious crimes.

Source: dna November 11, 2017 04:20 UTC