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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 victim, telling them they are about to die, or holding an unloaded gun to their head and pulling the trigger.[1] 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,post-traumatic stress disorder,memory loss, and other mental disorders.[2]
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.[3] Dostoevsky described the experience in his novelThe Idiot.[4]
TheAmerican hostages held by Iran in 1979 were subjected to a mock execution by their detainers.[5]
In 2000, six Royal Irish Ranger were held hostage in Sierra Leone and subjected to mock executions by theWest Side Boys to get information from them.[6]
Reports of mock executions carried out by theUS Marines on detainees in Iraq surfaced in December 2004,[7] as theAmerican Civil Liberties Union published internal documents of theNaval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) obtained through theFreedom of Information Act. The documents were written seven weeks after the publication of the photographs which triggered theAbu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
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.[8]
In 2014 journalistJames Foley was subjected to mock executions byISIS militants before he was beheaded. Mock executions are reported to be a common torture tactic used by ISIS.[9]
