The sense of helplessness is exacerbated by their knowledge that no judicial or legal intervention is permitted and that family visits are entirely at the discretion of their interrogators. Several former detainees have suffered mental breakdowns as a result of prolonged intense psychological pressure during interrogation. Others have been forced to make false confessions. By dehumanizing and breaking the will of their victims, security personnel seek to make an example of their victims, it suggests. The Istanbul Protocol states that a number of symptoms seem to occur regularly with torture survivors.
Many victims experience profound emotional reactions and psychological symptoms.
Dr Munawar Anees, ex-prisoner of conscience, friend and former speech writer of Anwar Ibrahim, was arrested under the ISA in 1998, held incommunicado and forced under torture to confess to having had a sexual relationship with Anwar. I found I was in a small room. There were four men in that room. They were all in plainclothes and they immediately adopted a very aggressive confrontational stance against me. They were exceptionally rude and coarse in the language they used.