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torment means torture either physically or mentally? Rough us up means beat up physically?
Freed rebel fighter Denis Balbukov said: "I want to eat fried potatoes and talk to my relatives."
But he added: "I will go back to fighting. It was all right once we were moved to the detention centre, but to begin with, they really tormented and roughed us up."
rough up is physical violence.
torment can be both physical and mental.
Given that in the text both words are used, I think that torment refers to the mental anguish caused by the captors (e.g. waking you up all the time), while roughed us up refers to the violence they endured.
