E/CN.4/1995/34 page 119 was taken to the clinic. While he was still recovering an officer reportedly came to his room, accused him of seditious acts and hit him repeatedly on the back of the head with a club. 622. The Special Rapporteur also transmitted information in the cases described in the paragraphs below. 623. ’Ali Muhsin Abu-Zahra was arrested in March 1992 at his living quarters in block 6, compound 3 of the Artawiyya camp, on charges of writing and producing a play criticizing the administration of the camp. He was allegedly taken to the "Emergency Unit" where he was stripped naked, threatened with rape, subjected to falaqa, beaten and jolted by an electrified rod. He was released in April 1992 after spending one month in incommunicado detention. 624. Dhia’Shabeeb was reportedly arrested in Artawiyya camp for having disobeyed an order issued by the camp authorities. He was allegedly taken outdoors and tied to a pole which had a bright lamp fixed at the top, attracting a large number of mosquitoes and other desert insects at night. When he was returned to his block the next day his body was bruised and severely swollen. 625. Hussein al-Jizani was in compound 5 in Rafha camp on the night of 18 April 1993 when he reportedly fell ill and went out to seek medical help. He was spotted by an army patrol, stopped for breaching the night curfew, and repeatedly and violently beaten by the soldiers in the presence of 15 witnesses, as a result of which he died that night. It was also reported that the witnesses were ill-treated to force them to sign a statement to the effect that Husseil al-Jizani had died of a heart attack. 626. The Special Rapporteur also informed the Government that he had received reports indicating that the punishment of flogging was widely used in the camp and was imposed by a Shari’a court judge for a wide range of offences, including sexual acts between unmarried heterosexual couples and the consumption of alcohol. Persons were allegedly brought before the judge in the absence of any defence counsel and often convicted solely on the basis of a "confession" signed under duress. Thus on 23 July 1992 four refugees from Diwaniyya were arrested in Rafha on charges relating to the consumption of alcohol. ’Abbas ’Ali Mahawi, charged and convicted of being in the company of men drinking alcohol, was sentenced to 73 days’ imprisonment and 80 lashes. ’Ali Sabah Ward, charged and convicted of brewing alcohol, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and 400 lashes. Muhammad Masayri’ Hassan, charged and convicted of alcohol consumption, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and 300 lashes. Hadi Nasser Hussein, charged and convicted of drinking and selling alcohol, was sentenced to 300 lashes. They were all said to have been administered the full number of lashes to which they had been sentenced. Urgent appeals 627. On 11 October 1994 the Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government an urgent appeal concerning Dr. Mohamed Kamel Mohamed Khalifa, an Egyptian physician detained in El Brida prison in El Qasim, who reportedly was sentenced to flogging after being convicted of telling lies. He was said to have been so charged because he filed a complaint against the principal of