CAT/C/34/D/233/2003** Page 17 7.1 By submission of 3 May 2004, the State party responded to counsel’s letter of 20 April 2004. The State party advised that since the last (seventeenth) visit reported to the Committee on 5 December 2003, four further visits on 17 December 2003, 28 January 2004, 8 March 2004 and 24 March 2004 had taken place. The State party advised that from December 2003 to January 2004, the complainant’s situation remained broadly the same, with him taking up law studies. While complaining that his two cellmates disturbed peace and quiet required for study, he managed to prepare for examinations that took place in the facility in January 2004. The reportedly maximum security Abu-Zabaal facility to which he was transferred was said to be a more customary facility for prisoners sentenced to long terms. At the same time, the prison director advised that the complainant had been ordered to spend 15 days in isolation as a disciplinary sanction for having attempted to instigate a rebellion amongst Masra Torah inmates. The State party had obtained separate corroborating evidence that (i) the complainant had attempted to start a prison riot by “shouting words calling for disobedience against the instructions and regulation of the prison” and that (ii) restrictions had been imposed on correspondence and visiting rights, for a period of three months. The State party observed that the complainant was found guilty of one of the two offences with which he was charged, namely having held a leading position in, and being responsible for, the terrorist organization Islamic Al-Fath Vanguards. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, hard labour (abolished in 2003) not being imposed. He is currently in Masra Torah prison awaiting decisions as to future placement. 7.2 The State party maintained its earlier positions with respect to the admissibility of the complaint, as well as to the merits, that is, that the complainant has not substantiated his claims that the Egyptian authorities have not respected the guarantees in practice. It recalled that the crucial question is what the State party had reason to believe, in light of the guarantees given, at the time of the expulsion. The State party thus submitted that it has been in full conformity with its obligations under the Convention. 8.1 By letter of 3 May 2004, counsel argued that he had initially only been supplied with a redacted version of the diplomatic report supplied after the first ambassadorial meeting in 23 January 2002 with the complainant. Counsel contended that the full report had just been provided to him by a lawyer representing a third party deported at the same time as the complainant. Counsel contends that according to this report the complainant informed the Ambassador that he had been tortured (in the form of beating by prison guards) and subjected to cruel and degrading treatment (in the form of blindfolding, solitary confinement in a very small cell, sleep deprivation and refusal of prescribed medication). Counsel argued that the State party had not supplied this information to the Committee. Counsel further provided a report by Human Rights Watch critical of diplomatic assurances in this context, 13 as well as a statement dated 27 April 2004 of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights critical of the complainant’s retrial. 8.2 By letter of 4 May 2004, counsel provided his translation of the diplomatic report described. After describing a forced posture during the air transport to Egyp t, the complainant is said to have told the Ambassador at the first meeting, in the presence of Egyptian officials, that he had been “forced to be blindfolded during interrogation, kept in too narrow cells, 1.50 x 1.50 metres during the same period, lack of sleep due to supervision in cells, a delay of ten days before [he] once gets access to his anti- gastric drugs (after medical examination), that 13 Human Rights Watch: “Empty Promises : Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard against Torture”,April 2004, Vol.16 No. 4(D).