The welcome parade (also known as health trail or corredor polonês) is a form of

running the gauntlet "Running the gauntlet" refers to taking part in a form of corporal punishment in which one or more individuals is forced to run between two rows of people who attack them with weapons. Metaphorically, the term is also used to convey a public tr ...

used to

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

new prisoners in some countries, including

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in the twentieth century during the

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

(communist period),

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

in the twenty-first century.

Twentieth century

Poland

In Poland under the communist regime (1946–1989), the welcome parade

was called the "health trail" () and was widely applied by police (

Milicja Obywatelska Milicja Obywatelska (MO; ), known as the Citizens' Militia in English, was the national police organization of the Polish People's Republic. The MO was established on 7 October 1944 by the Polish Committee of National Liberation under Chief Co ...

), riot police ( ZOMO) and internal security forces/political police (

Służba Bezpieczeństwa The Security Service (; ), in full Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and commonly known as SB, was a secret police force established in the Polish People's Republic in 1956 as a successor to the Ministry of Public Security (P ...

), particularly against political protesters and anticommunist activists.

Brazil

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, the welcome parade was called ''corredor polonês'' (''Polish corridor'') in allusion to the Polish tradition.

Twenty-first century

Egypt

During the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, torture was common in Egyptian police stations, with 701 incidents of torture recorded by the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights between 1985 and 2011, among which 204 prisoners died from torture and mistreatment.

Method

In the Egyptian variant, policemen form two rows. The new prisoner crawls on the ground or is made to walk bent over between the two rows of policemen. The policemen then kick, hit and insult the new prisoner walking between the two rows. After Egyptian blogger, software developer and political activist

Alaa Abd el-Fattah Alaa Ahmed Seif al Islam Abd El-Fattah (, ), known professionally as Alaa Abd El-Fattah (), is an Egyptian-British blogger, software developer, and political activist. He has been active in developing Arabic-language versions of software and pl ...

was arrested on 29 September 2019 during the 2019 Egyptian protests, he was blindfolded and had to undress down to his underwear for his welcome parade. He was beaten on his back and his neck, repeatedly kicked, threatened and verbally abused during the parade, which lasted 15 minutes. Abd El-Fattah's welcome parade took place in

Tora Prison Tora Prison ( '; ) is an Egyptian prison complex for criminal and political detainees, located in Tora, Egypt. The complex is situated in front of the Tora El Balad metro station. The main buildings in the Tora Prison complex are Tora Agricultur ...

. Mohamed el-Baqer, Abd El-Fattah's lawyer and head of the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms (himself also arrested on 29 September 2019), was blindfolded for his welcome parade in Tora Prison, during which he was insulted by policemen.

Role in Egyptian prisons

According to Abd El-Fattah, the welcome parade is used against prisoners classified with a low status, "without protection." He reported an incident in which a prisoner of high social status was accidentally subjected to a welcome parade. The incident was followed by "frantic action" by senior officials, who apologised to the prisoner.

Deaths

Abd El-Fattah reported a welcome parade used against an elderly man who died during the parade. According to him, there was no change in prison procedures following the death.

Belarus

In Belarus, the welcome parade is widely used in prisons. Footage of the parade that took place on 11 August 2020 during the

2020–2021 Belarusian protests The 2020–2021 Belarusian protests were a series of mass Demonstration (political), political demonstrations and protests against the Government of Belarus, Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. The largest anti-government ...

Okrestina Okrestina Detention Centre, Akrestsina Detention Centre, officially, the Criminal Detention Centre of the Minsk Executive Committee’s Main Internal Affairs Directorate (, ), is a pre-trial detention centre in Minsk, Belarus. The prison is know ...

prison in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

is available on YouTube.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news, url=http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2011/06/22/eohr-calls-for-investigating-900-torture-cases/ , title=EOHR calls for investigating 900 torture cases , author=Marwa Al-A'sar/Daily News Egypt , date=22 June 2011 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110627232924/http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/human-a-civil-rights/eohr-calls-for-investigating-900-torture-cases.html , archive-date=27 June 2011 , url-status=dead {{cite news , title= Alaa Abd El Fattah and his lawyer recount humiliation and beatings in maximum-security prison , date= 2019-10-10 , newspaper=

Mada Masr ''Mada Masr'' () is an independent Egyptian online newspaper, founded in June 2013 by former journalists of the English-language newspaper '' Egypt Independent'' following the shutting down of its editorial operations in April 2013. It is an inde ...

, url= https://madamasr.com/en/2019/10/10/news/u/alaa-abd-el-fattah-and-his-lawyer-recount-humiliation-and-beatings-in-maximum-security-prison/ , access-date=2019-10-10 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191010202251/https://madamasr.com/en/2019/10/10/news/u/alaa-abd-el-fattah-and-his-lawyer-recount-humiliation-and-beatings-in-maximum-security-prison/ , archive-date= 2019-10-10 , url-status=live {{cite news , last1= Abd El-Fattah , first1= Alaa , author-link1 =Alaa Abd El-Fattah , title= A personal introduction to viciousness in enmity , date= 2019-09-23 , newspaper=

, url= https://madamasr.com/en/2019/09/23/opinion/politics/a-personal-introduction-to-viciousiousness-in-enmity/ , access-date= 2019-10-10 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191006190944/https://madamasr.com/en/2019/09/23/opinion/politics/a-personal-introduction-to-viciousiousness-in-enmity/ , archive-date= 2019-10-06 , url-status=live {{cite web , title =Egypt: Torture of activist Alaa Abdel Fattah illustrates use of extreme brutality to crush dissent , website=

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

, date = 2019-10-10 , url = https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/egypt-torture-of-activist-alaa-abdel-fattah-illustrates-use-of-extreme-brutality-to-crush-dissent/ , access-date = 2019-10-10 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191010210150/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/egypt-torture-of-activist-alaa-abdel-fattah-illustrates-use-of-extreme-brutality-to-crush-dissent/ , archive-date= 2019-10-10 , url-status=live {{cite web , title =Belarus: Welcome parade in Akrescina prison in Minsk, August 11th, 2020 , website=

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, date = 2020-08-11 , url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYIHL1_PZns , access-date = 2020-10-11 {{Cite web, title='Element antysocjalistyczny' na 'ścieżce zdrowia', trans-title='Antisocialist element' on the 'health path', url=https://tvn24.pl/polska/element-antysocjalistyczny-na-sciezce-zdrowia-ra118570-3694495, access-date=2021-10-28, website=TVN24, date=13 December 2009 , language=pl, archive-url=https://archive.today/20211028204919/https://tvn24.pl/polska/element-antysocjalistyczny-na-sciezce-zdrowia-ra118570-3694495, archive-date=2021-10-28, url-status=live Physical torture techniques Psychological torture techniques Human rights abuses in Egypt