E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.4 page 15 complaints are referred to the relevant organizations and addressed. Detainees are not handcuffed in their rooms, but are when meeting their families or taken outside for air, in accordance with the Prison Rules. Prisoners on death row 50. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned about all the circumstances surrounding the death penalty in Mongolia, most particularly that it is considered a State secret. It is alleged that the number of executions, presently estimated at approximately 20-30 persons per year, is on the increase. The Special Rapporteur was not provided with official statistics in this regard, nor was such statistics publicly available. Despite repeated requests to the highest authorities of the Government, including the President, to prosecutors and the judiciary, the Special Rapporteur was not provided with any official information, names or statistics concerning persons who have been sentenced to death, pardoned or executed, nor with any information regarding the times and places of execution. While one family member is permitted to visit a prisoner on death row once he is sentenced, not even the families are notified of the exact date or place of execution and they do not receive the bodies of executed persons for burial. In Lyashkevich v. Belarus, the Human Rights Committee considered that “[c]omplete secrecy surrounding the date of execution, and the place of burial and the refusal to hand over the body for bur ial have the effect of intimidating or punishing families by intentionally leaving them in a state of uncertainty and mental distress…[and] amounts to inhuman treatment [of family members]” in violation of article 7 of the Covenant (CCPR/C/77/D/887/1999, para. 9.2). According to the Special Rapporteur, this assessment is equally applicable to the situation observed in Mongolia. 51. The Special Rapporteur received serious and credible allegations that persons on death row are detained in isolation and are kept handcuffed and shackled throughout their detention, and denied adequate food. Moreover, he obtained very precise and detailed information about individuals on death row in Gants Hudag and in Zuunmod pre-trial detention facilities, particularly Mr. Bayarjav and Mr. Sedev Bataa, held at Gants Hudag and Zuunmod, respectively (whose cases are included in the appendix). Despite authorization received from the Government for unimpeded access to all places of detention, Mr. Sugarjav and Mr. Ochirbat, the respective heads of Gants Hudag and Zuunmod, in clear breach of the Special Rapporteur’s terms of reference, deliberately obstructed him in investigating the allegations of torture and ill-treatment of the detainees; they refused to provide him access to the custody registers and access to these persons when he visited the institutions on 8 and 9 June 2005. 52. After the visit, the Special Rapporteur requested the Government to provide him with the identities of all persons sentenced to death within the last three years; those whose appeals had failed and were awaiting execution; those who had been pardoned; the precise locations of all of those prisoners; and, for those who had been executed, the date of execution and the place of burial. The Special Rapporteur further requested information on the conditions of detention of death row prisoners. Moreover, he requested an explanation for the refusal by the heads of the Gants Hudag and Zuunmod pre-trial detention facilities to cooperate. At the time of writing, no information had been provided by the Government. 53. In view of the lack of cooperation from the Government, the Special Rapporteur bases his conclusions on well- substantiated information provided by family members and NGOs. The fact that death row prisoners are detained in complete isolation, are continuously kept handcuffed and