London-based rights group Amnesty International accused...

London-based rights group Amnesty International accused Laos of stripping the most basic of human rights from prisoners and said torture was widespread and routine in prisons.
"Individuals are at the mercy of a system that lacks transparency, clarity or reason," the organisation said, adding that basic safeguards are almost wholly absent and allow for frequent detention and torture.
Amnesty said it had received reports of death threats and mock execution, solitary confinement, suffocation, near drowning, use of electric shocks, burning with cigarettes and extremes of temperature.
Torture and ill-treatment are meted out to prisoners regardless of their nationality.