E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.2 page 16 50. According to consistent information received from relatives of detainees in Jaslyk colony, upon arrival, relatives have to spend a night in a nearby hotel. The conditions there are said to be very poor. The director assured the Special Rapporteur that detainees can receive visits whenever they wish. He explained, however, that detainees under “strict regime” may receive only four visits per year, two of them of a longer duration (up to three days). According to the director, upon arrival relatives would contact him and be granted permission to visit their relatives. Furbished rooms are said to be put at their disposal. According to relatives, the director insults and harasses them and threatens to kill detainees if their families do not encourage them to write repentance letters. 51. The director informed the Special Rapporteur that the Jaslyk colony no longer has a punishment cell for inmates who infringe prison rules; he explained that inmates who breach prison rules or misbehave are reprimanded. He stressed that allegations of detainees being held in the basement or in secret places at the colony are only rumours, and that the colony is open to visits from not only relatives, but also religious leaders (muftis), civil society organizations and others, such as the Ombudsman’s Office and the ICRC. Furthermore, each month, representatives from the Office of the General Procurator, at either the regional or national level, visit the colony. The director stressed that muftis come to teach to prisoners “real” Islam, because of the proselytism by religious terrorists detained in Jaslyk colony. The director proudly mentioned that 70-80 per cent of the detainees write letters of repentance, and that he personally exhorts them to do so. 52. The Special Rapporteur enquired more specifically about the two recent deaths in Jaslyk colony. The bodies of Khusnuddin Alimov, aged 24, and Muzafar Avazov, aged 35, who were serving 16- and 18-year sentences respectively for their involvement in Hizb-ut-Tahrir, were returned home to Tahskent for burial on 8 August 2002. Pictures were taken of Mr. Avazov’s body which was visibly covered with extensive bruises and burns, the latter possibly caused by immersion in boiling water; Mr. Alimov’s body was reportedly also covered with the same types of marks and injuries. The director explained that the policy of the colony is to place religious terrorists, often said to be connected with Afghanistan or Chechnya, with common criminals. Hence, when terrorists engage in proselytism and make offensive remarks against Uzbekistan’s administrative system and political leadership, fights often break out. According to the director, this is what had happened in August 2002 in the case of Khusnuddin Alimov and Muzafar Avazov. Teapots containing boiling water were said to have been thrown during the fight, which, according to the director, explained the burns. He further indicated that, like all cases of death in custody, the case had been referred to the Office of the General Procurator which had carried out an investigation, including an autopsy, and that a decision not to open criminal proceedings had been reached. The Special Rapporteur recalled that an expert forensic examination based on the photographs of Mr. Avazov’s body had been carried out by a professor of forensic medicine and science at the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) which had concluded, inter alia, that “[t]he pattern of scalding shows a well-demarcated line on the lower chest/abdomen, which could well indicate the forceful application of hot water whilst the person is within some kind of bath or similar vessel. Such scalding does not have the splash pattern that is associated with random application as one would expect with accidental scalding”. The director answered by saying that the detainees in question had a yellow/dark complexion which burns faster. Regarding the more general question of how many persons had died in custody in Jaslyk colony in recent years, the director said he could not answer the question.