E/CN.4/1993/26 page 38 receive the medical care required by an acute attack of asthma. The autopsy established that the asthma attack was the cause of the fatal events. It does not record any sign of external violence. 154. Ifraín Suárez Lezcano, an inmate of the Santa Clara prison, was beaten with hosepipes and kicked by a party of guards, Héctor Morales Otero, Iosvani Calloso, Osmany Mederos Gutiérrez and Miguel López Montero. 155. The Government states that Efrain Suárez Lezcano quarrelled with another prisoner while they were playing prohibited games. The prison authorities intervened and did not use excessive force in the discharge of their duty. 156. The Special Rapporteur also informed the Government that he had received reports of harsh conditions of detention including beating, and including medical and pharmacological attention suffered by a group of inmates with AIDS in the eastern combined prison. Their names are Oscar Pérez Celles, Ismael Duquesne Arteaga, Heriberto Pedro Almeida, Abel Martínez Marto, Ariel Rodríguez Leon, Lázaro Valdés Ramírez and Güilfredo Reinaldo Aguilar García. 157. The Government states that Ismael Duquesne died as a result of AIDS on 11 July 1992 in the Miguel Enríquez civil hospital in Havana. Abel Martínez Matos was released on 8 July 1992 on completion of his sentence. There is no trace of a prisoner with the name Lázaro Valdés Ramírez in the prison or hospital records. Oscar Pérez Celles, Heriberto Pedro Almeida, Ariel Rodríguez León and Guilfredo Reinaldo Aguilar García receive treatment in prison similar to that received by other patients suffering from the virus in the national health system hospitals. This includes enriched diet and specialized medical and pharmacological care. None of the prisoners mentioned has been beaten or maltreated by the prison authorities. Djibouti Information transmitted to the Government 158. In a letter of 21 August 1992, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received allegations that most persons arrested in Djibouti in political cases were tortured shortly after their initial interrogation. Torture was normally inflicted by members of the information and security service, such as the Ambouli brigade, also known as Villa Christopher or the northern brigade. Prisoners are generally tortured while in police custody when they cannot be visited by members of their family, lawyers or medical personnel. 159. Torture appears to be used principally to induce detainees to make statements incriminating others that can be used before the examining magistrate. Questioning by the examining magistrate after the period of police custody is conducted in the presence of members of the security forces, notably those responsible for torturing or maltreating the person under interrogation. In most cases members of the judicial police are alleged to have threatened prisoners with further torture in the course of their journey from the detention centre to the prosecutors department if they do not confirm the statements they signed while in police custody.