The Algerian hook

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The Algerian hook is a slow method of execution and was used some four hundred years ago at Babazonian Gate, Algiers, in North Africa. It is generally described as having a suspended hook impaled, usually through the waist, and left to hang. For such minor charges as stealing a loaf of bread, or not paying a debt, a convicted man could be tortured by the hook for forty-eight hours. While one victim is suspended and in the throes of agony, off to one side, lying on a rudimentary bench, lies one other who has already succumbed to the torture. Some were known to have survived the Algerian Hook when vital organs were missed, and blood poisoning did not become a factor.