It also has many other causes, including electrocution, drowning, choking and trauma.

The women were stripped and subjected to all kinds of torture. The torture included electrocution, she told a conference session attended by Reuters.

Earlier this month, the body of a missing Italian graduate student was found on the outskirts of Cairo showing signs of torture, including electrocution.

Some 400,000 documents - the biggest leak of military records in US history - describe torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees, including electrocution and executions.