Editing Mock execution (section)

== Historical instances ==
[[File:B pokrovsky kazn 1849.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Petrashevsky Circle|Petrashevsky Circle's]] members, including writer [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]], going through an 'execution ritual', an example of a mock execution. St. Petersburg, Semionov-Plaz, 1849.<br>B. Pokrovsky's drawing]] 
* During the [[Partitions of Poland#First Partition|Polish uprisings of 1772]], then-Prussian cavalry captain [[Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher]] staged a mock execution of a Polish priest who chastised him, claiming that the cleric supported the rebellion. This led to Blücher facing a career setback, as [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick the Great]] denied him a promotion to the rank of [[Major (rank)|major]] upon hearing of this unauthorized  punitive action, leading to Blücher’s 1773 resignation and fourteen-year military career hiatus.
* In 1849, members of Russian political discussion group the [[Petrashevsky Circle]], including writer [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]], were convicted for high treason and sentenced to execution by firing squad. The sentences were commuted to hard labour secretly and the prisoners were told only after all the preparations for execution had been carried out.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frank |first1=Joseph |title=Dostoevsky A Writer in His Time |date=2010 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=178}}</ref> Dostoevsky described the experience in his novel ''[[The Idiot]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dostoevsky |first1=Fyodor |title=The Idiot |date=2004 |publisher=Penguin Classics |page=71}}</ref>    
* In 1968, [[Commander Lloyd M. Bucher]], Commander of the ''[[USS Pueblo (AGER-2)|USS Pueblo]]'', was tortured and put through a mock firing squad by North Korean interrogators in an effort to make him confess.
* The [[Iran hostage crisis|American hostages held by Iran]] in 1979 were subjected to a mock execution by their detainers.
* Reports of mock executions carried out by the [[US Marines]] on detainees in Iraq surfaced in December 2004,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17206&c=206 |title=American Civil Liberties Union: U.S. Marines Engaged in Mock Executions of Iraqi Juveniles and Other Forms of Abuse, Documents Obtained by ACLU Reveal<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2016-12-04 |archive-date=2005-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051115172543/http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17206&c=206 |url-status=dead }}</ref> as the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] published internal documents of the [[Naval Criminal Investigative Service]] (NCIS) obtained through the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]]. The documents were written seven weeks after the publication of the photographs which triggered the [[Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse]] scandal.
*In 2000, British military hostages in Sierra Leone were subject to mock executions by the [[West Side Boys]] to get information from them.
* In April 2003, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel [[Allen West (politician)|Allen West]] had Iraqi police officer Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi seized and brought in for questioning based on allegations he was planning an imminent attack on West's unit. After Hamoodi was allegedly beaten by an interpreter and several U.S. troops, West took Hamoodi out of the interrogation room and showed him six U.S. troops with weapons in hand. West told Hamoodi, "If you don't talk, they will kill you."  West then placed Hamoodi's head in a sand-filled barrel used for clearing weapons, placed his gun into the barrel and discharged the weapon near Hamoodi's head. Hamoodi then provided West with names, location and methods of the alleged ambush, which never happened, and no evidence of any plans of attack was found. Hamoodi was released without charges; West was charged with violations of two statutes of the [[Uniform Code of Military Justice]], but charges were dropped after West was fined $5,000 for the incident and allowed to resign his position with the U.S. Army without court martial.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/politics/27WEST.html?ex=1400990400&en=71d7b26fe2922d57&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND |title=Deborah Sontag, "How Colonel Risked His Career by Menacing Detainee and Lost", New York Times (May 27 2004) |access-date=2017-02-19 |archive-date=2010-10-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007062038/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/politics/27WEST.html?ex=1400990400&en=71d7b26fe2922d57&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In 2014 journalist [[James Foley (journalist)|James Foley]] was subjected to mock executions by [[Islamic State of Iraq and Levant|ISIL]] militants before he was beheaded. Mock executions are reported to be a common torture tactic used by ISIL.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/21/world/meast/isis-james-foley/index.html|title=Foley's final months: Mock executions, failed rescue|author1=Chelsea J. Carter|author2=Barbara Starr|author3=Ashley Fantz|website=CNN|date=21 August 2014|access-date=2019-11-17|archive-date=2024-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240415164406/https://www.cnn.com/2014/08/21/world/meast/isis-james-foley/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>