E/CN.4/1995/34 page 99 Norway Urgent appeals 512. The Special Rapporteur transmitted an urgent appeal on 24 August 1994 concerning Iranian nationals Bahlul Karbaly Khalil Moghadami, Mansour Mohammadi Injeh and Farhad Mohammadi Injeh, who hijacked an Aeroflot plane over Russian territory on 15 September 1993 and landed in Oslo. The Russian Federation had requested their extradition in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1970 on unlawful seizure of aircraft. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the Norwegian Ministry of Justice had decided on 23 August 1994 to extradite these persons in accordance with the Russian request. 513. Assuring the Government that he did not wish to prevent those accused of a serious crime such as hijacking from being brought to justice, the Special Rapporteur appealed to the Government not to extradite the above-mentioned individuals, particularly unless it could assure itself and take measures to ensure that the individuals would not be subjected to such torturous conditions as existed in some pre-trial detention centres in the Russian Federation. The Special Rapporteur, having recently undertaken a mission to the Russian Federation to examine conditions of detention, had concluded that conditions in certain pre-trial detention centres, such as Butyrskaya and Matrosskaya Tishina 1 in Moscow, were for certain categories of prisoners so gross due to overcrowding as to be a detriment to health (see E/CN.4/1995/34/Add.1). Those detention centres had in fact been described as inhumane by responsible Russian authorities. In addition, one of the prisoners suffers from a severe case of post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of imprisonment and torture in the Islamic Republic of Iran and had attempted suicide in a Norwegian prison. In the light of this alleged torture and of repeated allegations of torture in the Islamic Republic, the Special Rapporteur also asked that the Government ensure that any extradition to the Russian Federation not be followed by extradition or deportation to Iran. 514. On 6 October 1994 the Government replied that the extradition decision by the Ministry of Justice followed a Eidsvoll court of summary jurisdiction ruling that the criteria for extradition under the Norwegian Extradition Act had been fulfilled. The ruling had stipulated that, barring exceptional circumstances, the persons not be re-extradited to a third State. This ruling was appealed to the Eidsivating High Court and the Supreme Court Appeals Committee and was dismissed. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and police had considered carefully the objections raised by the hijackers as well as the Government’s international obligations and could not see that the extradition would contravene its international obligations. The Ministry of Justice considered it decisive that the aircraft hijacking was an extremely grave offence which was carefully planned and which put passengers and crew in danger of their lives. The Norwegian authorities would ask the Russian authorities for permission to visit the persons after extradition in order to remain informed about their situation in Russia after they were taken into custody. The Ministry’s decision was subject to appeal and such an appeal has been lodged.