E/CN.4/2000/9 page 8 Afghanistan Regular communications and replies received 11. The Special Rapporteur has received information on alleged acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment which were said to have occurred in August 1998 when the Taliban reportedly seized the town of Mazar-I-Sharif. The allegations received were consistent with those received by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, a summary of which may be found in his interim report to the General Assembly (A/53/539). A reply from the Embassy of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in Islamabad may also be found in that report. Urgent appeals and replies received 12. On 24 March 1999, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, on behalf Farzana, a young pregnant woman who had reportedly been found guilty of extra-marital sexual intercourse. She was due to be publicly flogged after the birth her baby which was expected to be delivered in a few weeks' time. Her co-accused, Sayed Sarwar, who had also been found guilty of adultery, had reportedly been publicly lashed one hundred times at a school football ground in Kabul. Albania Regular communications and replies received 13. By letter dated 8 November 1999, the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government of a number of cases submitted in 1998 regarding which no reply had been received. Algeria Regular communications and replies received 14. By letter dated 3 September 1999, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received information on the cases described below, concerning which the Government replied by letter dated 15 November 1999. 15. Ahmed Jalal was allegedly arrested on 20 December 1992 while participating in demonstrations in support of the Islamic Salvation Front, of which he has been a member since September 1989. He was reportedly accused of murder and interrogated for one week. He was allegedly forced to swallow detergents, which caused diarrhoea, his penis was crushed in a drawer and he was sodomized by one of his interrogators. He was then transferred to Lambasa prison in Tazoult, Batna province, where he spent five years. In late March 1998 he was transferred to a hospital, from which he escaped on 9 April 1998. 16. Mohamed Ouarti was allegedly accused of involvement in the killing of a young woman who was part of the national security force. He was reportedly arrested on 11 April 1993 at his home in Algiers by members of the national police force. He was suspended from handcuffs attached to his wrists by masked persons, burnt with a blowtorch and subjected to electric shock. He was finally admitted to the emergency ward and treated for paralysis of the right hand and