E/CN.4/2000/9 page 39 that afternoon to the anti-gang detention centre at Palar, where he has since reportedly been held incommunicado. The reasons for his arrest are not known but would appear to be connected to his activities as a human rights defender. Follow-up to previously transmitted communications 174. By letter dated 7 April 1999, the Government replied to the urgent appeal sent by the Special Rapporteur on 11 November 1997 (see E/CN.4/1998/38/Add.1, para. 48) concerning members of the Social Democratic Front. According to the Government, Thomas Fefe and Justin Fokan were arrested on 8 October 1997, while distributing pamphlets calling on the population to boycott the elections, and were taken to central police headquarters, from which they were released after 12 days of preventive detention. The Government denied the allegations of torture. 175. By letter dated 8 April 1999, the Government replied to an urgent appeal transmitted by the Special Rapporteur on 9 December 1998 (see E/CN.4/1999/61, para. 105) on behalf of Michel Michaut Moussala. It confirmed that he had been convicted on 13 January 1998 of dissemination of false information and defamation. The ruling was appealed by the accused, who has been provisionally released while the substance of the case is being considered. The Government indicated that Michel Moussala regularly received the necessary medical treatment during his stay in prison and that his physical or mental integrity has not been violated. Observations 176. The findings of the Special Rapporteur on his visit to Cameroon, which fully justify the concern of the Human Rights Committee "about the continued practice of torture" (CCPR/C/79/Add.116, para. 20), may be found in Addendum 2 to the present report. Chad Regular communications and replies received 177. By letter dated 3 September 1999 sent jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression and opinion, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received information on the following case. 178. Sosthène Ngargoune, president of the Chadian Journalists' Union, was allegedly beaten by members of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic (FARF) when they joined State security force members he was interviewing on 25 October 1997 at the Moundou police station. He was reportedly threatened with death and accused of having ties to the leader of the FARF. His photographic equipment and recording device were confiscated. He had already been arrested on 14 May 1998 and accused of defamation and calumny following the publication in his newspaper, N'Djamena Hebd, of an article in which he described members of the military as highway robbers who enjoyed the complicity of the local administration and in which he denounced extrajudicial executions. He was freed on 12 June 1998.