Hazing Recruits

Speaking in a Münster courtroom, a former army-recruit trainer admitted that he had attached two cables to a recruit's calves during a simulated hostage-taking, while another soldier operated the current generator.

The trainer in question, 28-year-old former staff sergeant Daniel J., said he had felt the cables with his fingertips to monitor how strong the current was.

According to news reports, J. told the court: "It was the stupidest thing I have ever done."

Of the total 18 men accused, J. was the 13th to give testimony but only the second to admit wrongdoing. At the same time, he denied that his platoon-leader co-defendants knew about the abuse.

"They were not present, and if they had known about it, then they would have intervened," he said.

Judge takes 'shocking' measure

After the testimony, presiding Justice Manfred Mattonet had the electric-shock device brought into the courtroom and tested it on himself.

"It feels like touching an electric fence," the Associated Press reported the justice as saying.

Two further defendants denied they took part in any abuse. Rather, one of the recruit trainers reported that he himself had been injured in a kidnapping simulation. A group of recruits had put up a strong defense during a final hostage-taking exercise, he said.

"One of the recruits had a pocket knife in his hand when we seized him," he said. "I got a surface laceration, and we broke off the exercise."

Various accusations

The company commander and 17 drill sergeants from the training barracks in Coesfeld, in northwestern Germany, are being tried in a Münster court for alleged abuse and debasement of 163 recruits during a total of four hostage taking simulations in the summer of 2004.

The trainers are not only accused of having subjected their recruits to electric shocks, but also of having kicked, beaten, and verbally abused them.

In prior proceedings, one defendant admitted to having sprayed water into a recruit's mouth, neck and pants with a water pump.