E/CN.4/1995/34 page 141 735. The Government informed the Special Rapporteur that Taofik Rajhi had actually been arrested on 11 August 1993 for membership of an unauthorized organization. He was not detained incommunicado, was not ill-treated and was not forced to sign a police statement without knowing its contents. He was sentenced on 31 August 1993 to a term of imprisonment which was later reduced by the Tunis court of appeal on 8 October 1993 to eight months. He was released on 11 April 1994 and had recently left Tunisia. Mr. Rajhi made no mention of torture until his appeal hearing. It was a frequent practice among accused persons to bring up procedural questions at appeal level in order to negate a confession. 736. Jaoua Thameur, a resident of Gammarth, Tunis, was reportedly arrested on 31 January 1993 at the Taoufik clinic by members of the police who carried no warrant. He was then transferred to the Sfax prison and held incommunicado for a period of weeks. Although recovering from a back operation, he was allegedly subjected to torture. When on 20 February his family were permitted to visit him, he was unable to move. 737. According to the Government, Jaoua Thameur was arrested on 14 February 1993 by the judicial police, was sentenced by the court of first instance in Sfax to 14 months’ imprisonment for unlawful political activities and was released on 14 April 1994. An examination conducted by the prison doctor during his detention in Sfax revealed that his pains were the result of an old injury. During his stay in the dispensary at the Sfax prison, he was examined on 23 and 27 February and given adequate medical treatment. He was transferred to the Tunis civil prison on 16 May 1993, where he stayed in the dispensary and received satisfactory treatment and was in a normal state of health. The allegations that he was subjected to torture and no longer capable of moving about were totally unfounded. Also, he had never been deprived of contact with his lawyer and had received regular visits from family members. Follow-up to cases previously transmitted 738. By the same letter, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received additional information with respect to a case previously transmitted to the Government. On 13 September 1993 the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal to the Government on behalf of Salaheddine Zikikout, arrested on 8 August 1993. On 18 October 1993 the Government replied, inter alia, that he was detained in the civil prison of Tunis where he could be visited by his family, and was treated normally, in accordance with the 1988 prison regulations. Further information received by the Special Rapporteur indicated that after his arrest Salaheddine Zikikout had been held for 53 days in incommunicado detention, 43 days more than the maximum period allowed by law. During that time he was said to have been tortured and made to sign a police statement under duress and without knowing its contents. Both the court of first instance, which sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment for membership in an unauthorized organization, and the appeal court, which on 18 January 1994 upheld the sentence, refused to investigate the allegations of ill-treatment. They also were said to have failed to investigate allegations that the arrest date of 19 September on the police records had been falsified in order to conceal the illegally prolonged garde à vue detention.