E/CN.4/2001/66 page 123 627. On 11 May 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Representative on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression on behalf of two women’s rights activists, the lawyer, writer and scholar Mehrangiz Kar and the publisher and editor Shahla Lahiji, as well as a representative of the student organization “Office for Strengthening Unity” (Daftar-Tahkim-e Vahdat), Ali Afshari. They were reportedly accused of “acting against national security” and were detained incommunicado. The exact whereabouts of the three persons have not been confirmed. Mehrangiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji were reportedly summoned for interrogation and detained by the Revolutionary Court on 29 April 2000. Following their interrogation, they were placed under arrest. Ali Afshari was reportedly detained on 30 April. They are believed to have been detained because of their participation in a conference entitled “Post-election Iran”, organized in Berlin from 7 to 9 April 2000 by the Heinrich Böll Institute, and because of their advocacy of women’s rights. 628. On 30 June 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Ezzatollah Sahabi, a 70-year-old journalist and managing editor of the journal Iran-e Farda (The Iran of Tomorrow) who had reportedly been arrested on 26 June 2000 after having been interrogated at Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He is believed to have been detained incommunicado in connection with his participation at the aforementioned conference in Berlin, held on 7 and 8 April 2000, where political and social reforms in Iran were debated. Khalil Rostamkhani, a translator, had reportedly been arrested on 8 May 2000, because of having provided translation services for participants in the above-mentioned conference. He was said to have been held in incommunicado detention. 629. On 17 August 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on behalf of Ali Hassanzadeh, Mostafa Nikbakht and Mirkhalili Seyyed Nazary, who had reportedly been arrested on 5 July 2000 on suspicion of having written slogans against the regime’s leaders and of murdering a Revolutionary Guard. It is alleged that they have been tortured in order to extract confessions. Mostafa Nikbakht has reportedly been sentenced to death. 630. On 16 November 2000, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression on behalf of Akbar Ganji, a freelance journalist, who had reportedly been arrested on 22 April 2000, allegedly in connection with his participation in the aforementioned Berlin conference. On 9 November, he was reportedly brought before Branch 3 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran and complained about the torture he was allegedly subjected to in Evin prison. In particular, he had been hung upside down in a cell while four guards kicked him in the head and stomach. He was punished with 80 days of solitary confinement for having started a hunger strike to protest against the treatment he was subjected to.