A License to Torture ? vehicle. Female accused have the right to be searched by another woman with strict regard to decency according to Section 52 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, an interviewee answered to Equality Myanmar that all police officers who brought her to the vehicle were male police officers when she was detained by the security forces.34 In more cruel cases, the military’s security forces rammed private cars into peaceful strikes or flash mobs in some major cities including Yangon and Mandalay, severely injuring peaceful protesters and journalists. Five participants of a peaceful flash mob were killed as the junta’s security forces in a car rammed into the anti-coup flash mob in Yangon on December 5, 2021.35 2.2.2 Situation Under Interrogation and Detention Since the beginning of the illegal coup attempt, the Myanmar military has not only reused its existing interrogation centers but madeshift interrogation centers at many places. The number of interrogation centers cannot be estimated as the junta kept its interrogation centers secretive and sometimes transformed public facilities such as city hall, town hall or Dhamma Yone (Dhamma centers) into interrogation centers. In armed resistace active areas such as Karenni State (Kayah State) and Sagaing Region, religious buildings or worship places are used as multi-purpose military camps including a detention center and interrogation center.36 Despite lack of a definition for torture, Section 319 of Myanmar’s Penal Code defines “hurt” and Section 320 describes emasculation, permanent privation of the sight of either eye, permanent privation of the sight of either ear, privation of any member or joint, destruction or permanent impairing of the powers of any member or joint, permanent disfiguration of the head or face, fracture or dislocation of a bone or tooth, any hurt which endangers life or which causes the sufferer to be during the space of twenty days in severe and bodily pain as types of “grievous hurt”. It’s against the law to cause ‘hurt’ and ‘grievous hurt’ under Section 330 and Section 331 of Myanmar’s Penal Code. It is also illegal to induce a person to disclose or withhold information through threats or promises under Section 343 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits police from detaining a person for more than 24 hours without court authorization. 34 EQMM interview with a former prisoner. 35 “Five dead after Myanmar security forces ram car into Yangon protest – media”, Reuters, December 5, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-security-forces-ram-car-into-protest-yangondeaths-feared-2021-12-05/, (accessed June 10, 2023) 36 “Myanmar military uses systematic torture across country”, Associated Press, October 28, 2021, https:// apnews.com/article/myanmar-torture-military-prisons-insein-abuse-390fe5b49337be82ce91639e93e0192f (accessed June 10, 2023) Equality Myanmar 27