Amock execution is astratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. This might involveblindfolding the subjects, telling them they are about to die, making them recount last wishes, making them dig their owngrave, holding an unloaded gun to their head and pulling the trigger, shooting near (but not at) the victim, or firingblanks. Mock execution is categorized aspsychological torture. There is a sense of fear induced when a person is made to feel that they are about to be executed or witness someone being executed. Thepsychological trauma can lead todepression,anxiety disorders,post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental disorders.
Petrashevsky Circle's members, including writerFyodor Dostoevsky, going through an 'execution ritual', an example of a mock execution. St. Petersburg, Semionov-Plaz, 1849. B. Pokrovsky's drawing
In 1849, members of Russian political discussion group thePetrashevsky Circle, including writerFyodor Dostoevsky, were convicted for high treason and sentenced to execution by firing squad. The sentences were commuted to hard labour secretly and the prisoners were told only after all the preparations for execution had been carried out.[1] Dostoevsky described the experience in his novelThe Idiot.[2]
In 1968,Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, Commander of theUSS Pueblo, was tortured and put through a mock firing squad by North Korean interrogators in an effort to make him confess.
In 2000, British military hostages in Sierra Leone were subject to mock executions by theWest Side Boys to get information from them.
In April 2003, U.S. Army Lieutenant ColonelAllen West had Iraqi police officer Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi seized and brought in for questioning based on allegations he was planning an imminent attack on West's unit. After Hamoodi was allegedly beaten by an interpreter and several U.S. troops, West took Hamoodi out of the interrogation room and showed him six U.S. troops with weapons in hand. West told Hamoodi, "If you don't talk, they will kill you." West then placed Hamoodi's head in a sand-filled barrel used for clearing weapons, placed his gun into the barrel and discharged the weapon near Hamoodi's head. Hamoodi then provided West with names, location and methods of the alleged ambush, which never happened, and no evidence of any plans of attack was found. Hamoodi was released without charges; West was charged with violations of two statutes of theUniform Code of Military Justice, but charges were dropped after West was fined $5,000 for the incident and allowed to resign his position with the U.S. Army without court martial.[4]
In 2014 journalistJames Foley was subjected to mock executions byISIL militants before he was beheaded. Mock executions are reported to be a common torture tactic used by ISIL.[5]
