E/CN.4/1994/31 page 12 Special Rapporteur had apparently received on certain aspects of Algerian legislation "connected with the practice of torture" were so aberrant that there could be no question of Algeria paying the least attention to them. Urgent appeals 32. The Special Rapporteur transmitted an urgent appeal to the Government on 16 September 1993 expressing concern about the situation of Ameur Legraïdi and Fathi Ouerghi, Tunisian nationals alleged to be members of the unauthorized Islamic movement "Al-Nahda". They were reported to have left Tunisia in 1992 owing to fear of persecution because of their membership of the said movement. Ameur Legraidi had allegedly been condemned in absentia to 11 months’ imprisonment in Tunisia. The two men reportedly applied for political asylum in Algeria, where they were registered as refugees by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Office of Stateless Persons and Refugees of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was said to have granted them a temporary residence permit. On 13 June 1993 they were arrested in Algiers. Given the reports that seven persons of Tunisian nationality had been arrested and tortured by the Tunisian authorities after being forcibly repatriated from Algeria in January 1993, fears were expressed that the two men might also be subjected to such treatment if deported. 33. On 29 October 1993 the Government replied that these cases could not be regarded as situations coming within the terms of reference assigned to the Special Rapporteur by the Commission on Human Rights. However, in view of the importance Algeria attached to dialogue with experts of the Commission on Human Rights, the Government informed the Special Rapporteur that these cases had been discussed in detail with the appropriate body, namely, UNHCR. It recalled that States had the prerogative of granting refugee status to foreigners requesting such status and denied the allegation that Ameur Legraïdi and Fathi Ouerghi had been issued residence permits by the Office of Stateless Persons and Refugees in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 34. The Government also reported that Algeria had at no time failed in its duty as a country of reception, which had, moreover, been ranked as a constitutional principle; its continuing concern was to respond to genuinely humanitarian requests in accordance with the values of humanism and solidarity it had always upheld. Confronted with terrorist manifestations of religious extremism, Algeria had, since the establishment of the state of emergency, reiterated its commitment to the cause of human rights and showed that it was determined to base security action on full respect for the provisions of the international instruments to which it was a party, particularly those relating to the exercise of the right of derogation. All of the security measures taken to strengthen the rule of law and consolidate democratic institutions were thus in conformity with the international commitments Algeria had undertaken in the field of human rights. A similar concern had been shown in the humanitarian cases with which Algeria had had to deal and which had all been managed in accordance with its age-old attachment to the sacred principle of granting asylum to persons seeking protection.