UN bills Taser gun weapon of torture, Czech Police defend its use

The Czech Police have no plans to stop using Taser guns, a spokesman has said, a week after the United Nations put the arms on its list of torture weapons. The Czech Police currently own 8 Taser guns, and are in the process of investing in 42 more. The United Nations Committee against Torture decided last week to class the stun-guns as torture weapons, saying that they caused extreme pain, and in some cases death. But on Tuesday, a Czech Police spokesperson said that there had been no recorded deaths caused by Taser guns in the Czech Republic, and that the guns actually saved lives. A spokesperson for Amnesty International, Eva Dobrovolna, said that in the US and Canada, 290 people had died following a Taser shock in the last six years. She voiced her dismay at the Czech Police Force’s decision.