E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1 page 71 382. The allegations concerning the imprisonment of medical practitioners who refused to implement the decrees were unfounded and false. There was no record of the existence of a Dr. Tawfiq Abdullah Khalid in any governate. Dr. Yahya al-Khafaji and Dr. Rabi’Abdul Hadi were working for the Department of Health in the governate of Dhi Qar at Saddam public hospital and carrying out their duties in a normal manner. Dr. Abbas Qalander was head of the Dental Section of the Department of Health in the governate of Neineva. There was no physician in Baghdad practising under the name Dr. Nahrain Youssuf. Dr. Salih Muhammad was a recently graduated physician who was performing compulsory military service. 383. The Government sent a further communication on 15 September 1995 to which was attached five letters signed by doctors - Dr. Abbas Kalander Shahban, Dr. Abbas Kalander Ahmed, Dr. Yahya Hadi Ayod, Dr. Rabee Abdul Hadi Faroun and Dr. Shaleh Mohammad Ahmed al-Sharabi - stating that they had not been subjected to any form of harassment or pressure by the authorities or their agents and that they practised their medical professions and enjoyed a normal life with their families. Israel Information transmitted to the Government 384. By letter dated 14 July 1995 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had continued to receive information according to which Palestinians undergoing interrogation by the General Security Service (GSS or Shin Bet) are often subjected to torture or ill-treatment. The methods of torture reported include: beatings all over the body, sometimes with cables; hooding, sometimes with dirty and wet sacks which interfere with respiration; prolonged standing or sitting in painful and contorted positions (shabeh); sleep deprivation; confinement in closet-shaped rooms (kahzana); food deprivation; threats of disablement; and continuous subjection to loud music. 385. Israeli Criminal Procedure Law permits persons charged with State security offences to be held incommunicado for up to 30 days, the first 15 of which may be kept secret. Such periods of incommunicado detention create conditions which facilitate the practice of torture. Military orders applying to the Occupied Territories were said to permit detention without judicial review for up to 11 days and denial of access to a lawyer for a total of 90 days on security grounds. 386. The Landau Commission guidelines sanctioning "the exertion of a moderate measure of physical pressure" were allegedly applied in a way so as to allow for torture and ill-treatment. Because the guidelines are secret, it was impossible to assess the extent to which the above-mentioned practices were consistent with or a departure from them. The ministerial committee which meets monthly to review the guidelines was said to have allowed for the increased use of physical pressure in the aftermath of the October 1994 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. 387. The Special Rapporteur also sent the cases of alleged torture summarized in the following paragraphs.