E/CN.A/1990/17 page 15 Egypt 54. On 22 September 1989 the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal to the Government of Egypt concerning information alleging that approximately 60 persons (journalists, lawyers, trade unionists and members of the legal political opposition) were arrested during the night of 23/24 August 1989, held in Al Salam police station until 27 August, and then transferred to Abu Za'Abel prison. According to a number of prisoners later released, all reportedly suffered indiscriminate beating following a hunger strike on 28 August by 10 detainees protesting about prison conditions. The 10 protesters themselves were reportedly beaten individually and placed in solitary confinement. The following 23 persons were reportedly still being held by the police and fears have been expressed that they might be subjected to torture and ill-treatment while in detention: Riyad Rifat, Muhammad Riyad, Eamid Khalifa, Fikri Labib, Ibrahim Fathi, Ahmad Sadiq, Muhammad Abdel Salam Al Barbari, Muhammad Zaki Al Hifnawi, Mahrous Mahmoud Surour, Muhammad Abdel Fattah Abdel Hay, Abdel Khaliq Farouq, Gihad Taman, 'Imad 'Atiya, Abdel Aziz Ash-Shinawi, Ahmed Abdel Raziq, Sa'id Abdel Min'Im Natour, Fatahallah Mahrous, Shafiq Sa'id Allam, Ad-DasBOuqi Sulaiman Ad-Dassouqi, Abdel Min'Imm Al Maghrabi, 'Adil Idris, Jamal Abdel Hamid Jamal Idris, Hamdi Sabir As-Siba'I, Ad-Dassouqi Sulaiman Al Gharib, Muhammad Ahmed Al-Lithi, Mus'Ad Taha Sulaiman, Nabil Nour Ad-Din. 55. On 2 October 1989 the Special Rapporteur addressed a letter to the Government of Egypt transmitting information alleging that despite legislation which prohibited torture, invalidated confessions obtained under duress and made the infliction of torture for such a purpose a punishable offence, torture and ill-treatment of political detainees were widespread in recent years. It reportedly emerged from testimony given by former detainees held between 1986 and 1988 that a pattern of torture existed in the country and that safeguards to protect detainees from being tortured were insufficient. The methods of physical and psychological torture alleged to be resorted to in Egyptian prisons in recent years were the following: suspension by the wrists, ankles or knees; beating with cable, whips and thick sticks, principally on the soles of the feet or on the top of the head; extinguishing cigarettes on the body; electric shocks administered with wires or batons to sensitive parts of the body such as the mouth, nipples or genitals; sexual abuse and threats of being killed or imprisoned indefinitely, or of rape or sexual abuBe, directed either at the detainee or at the detainee's relatives. It was reported that numerous torture complaints had been filed in recent years with the office of the Prosecutor General, but that no investigation into such complaints was known to have taken place. The following cases of alleged torture were reported: (a) Hafez Al Sayyid Sa'ada, was arrested in early 1988 and held by the State Security Intelligence police at Gaber Bin Hayyan Street in Doqqi for more than two weeks, during which time he was allegedly severely tortured, to the point that he had to be treated in hospital before being sent to Tora Reception Prison; (b) Magdi Gharib Fayed, Muhammad Taha Abdul Azim Al Beheiri, and Farouq Al Sayyid Ashour, were arrested and charged with the attempted assassination of former Interior Minister Major General Hassan Abu Basha in May 1987. The three men were initially taken to the State Security