It has the whiff of the medieval forced confession about it.

The words are incriminating gobbledegook, and the 'soldiers' sound passionless and robotic, like hostages reciting a forced confession.

Defendants are protected from self-incrimination, forced confession, and unrestricted admission of hearsay evidence.

They were made to read forced confessions during the eight-day trial, broadcast live.

The prosecution, fearing that a higher court would reverse any guilty verdicts, never introduced the forced confessions into evidence in the trial.