E/CN.4/1994/31 page 109 517. On 20 July 1993 the Government replied that the above-mentioned persons had never been arrested. 518. The following leading members of the Nuba community in Khartoum, were reportedly arrested in late June by security officers at a number of different places in the city: Mohamed Hamad Kowa, former Minister of Tourism and member of the Sudan National Party; Mustafa Angelo, member of the Sudan National Party; Khamis Farajallah Kortel, priest; Angelo, teacher; Idris Shameila, teacher. They were allegedly being held incommunicado in an unknown location. (14 July 1993). 519. On 19 August 1993 the Government replied that these persons had never been arrested. Mohamed Hamad Kowa, former Minister of Tourism was leading his normal life in his house in Khartoum and had never been detained or called for interrogation by the security authorities. 520. Mamoun Elyas Mohammed Ahmed, a former police officer who was working as a public relations officer in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum was arrested in late August 1993 in Khartoum on suspicion of spying. Reports indicated that he had been tortured in custody. 521. El-Fadil Adam, a member of the banned Umma Party, was arrested in late August 1993 in Khartoum, apparently on suspicion of producing and distributing leaflets critical of the Government. His place of detention was not known. (15 September 1993) 522. On 23 September 1993 four women who had just communicated information to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, were arrested in front of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in Khartoum by members of the Sudanese police. The Special Rapporteur and three of his assistants personally witnessed the arrest and saw two of the women being brutally dragged along the street and forcefully thrown into police vehicles. A few minutes after the Special Rapporteur had left for the office of the Minister of Justice, the police brutally arrested, in front of many witnesses, a group of about 25 women who had been waiting in front of the UNDP office to meet him. 523. Baha’a al-Din Abul Gassim, aged 18, was reportedly arrested on 25 October 1993 outside his family home in south Khartoum by four armed plainclothed security officers. Baha’a Abul Gassim was the brother of Major Issam Abul Gassim, an army officer convicted of an attempted coup and executed in 1990. The arrest reportedly took place one day after Abul Gassim attended a meeting during which opposition was expressed to the Government’s policies. It was alleged that armed security officials entered the house where the meeting was being held by force and violently broke up the gathering and beat those present. (5 November 1993) 524. Sid Ahmad al-Hussein, Deputy Secretary General of the banned Democratic Unionist Party, was reportedly arrested by security officials at his home in Khartoum on 17 November 1993. His arrest allegedly took place a day after he had organized a meeting at Omdurman Ahlia University during which he denounced policies of the current Government.