OTTAWA, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban members captured by Canadian troops and handed over to Afghan authorities say they have been tortured despite promises they would be treated well, a newspaper said on Monday. Canada's minority Conservative government, which ran into serious trouble when faced with similar allegations earlier in the year, signed a deal with Kabul in May allowing Canadian officials access to prisoners. The French-language daily La Presse said it had found three prisoners who alleged inmates had been beaten with bricks and cables, given electric shocks, deprived of sleep and had their nails torn out. The three said they had been captured by Canadian troops, given a document that said torture was no longer used in Afghanistan and then transferred to the Afghan secret police. "The people from the secret service tore it (the document) up and threw it in my face. They tortured me for 20 hours. I protested and said the Canadians had promised that nothing would happen to me," La Presse quoted one of the three men as saying. "They replied: 'We're not in Canada, we're at home. The Canadians are dogs!'" he said. La Presse said it had conducted the interviews in Sarpoza prison in the southern city of Kandahar, where Canada's 2,500-strong military mission is based. Officials from Canada's defense and foreign ministries said they would look into the report. Human rights experts, speaking earlier this year, said Canadian soldiers could be guilty of war crimes because they transferred the detainees at a time when Ottawa was aware that Afghan authorities regularly tortured prisoners. International conventions prohibit a country from handing over prisoners if there is reason to suspect abuse.
