A/HRC/28/68/Add.1 thus, that the Government of Iran, by failing to prevent the arbitrary detention, physical abuse, and solitary confinement of Messrs. Omid Behrouzi, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, Sa’id Metinpour, Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, and Abdolfattah Soltani, has violated their right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, as provided by articles 1 and 16 of the CAT. (h) JUA 17/06/2014 Case No. IRN 10/2014 State Reply: None to date Allegations concerning the cases of Messrs. Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Malaee, Jahangir Dehghani and Jamshed Dehghani, who are reportedly at risk of imminent execution, after being transferred to solitary confinement. 234. The Special Rapporteur regrets that the Government of Iran has not replied to the present communication, thereby failing to cooperate with the mandate issued by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 25/13, and to comply with its obligation, under international customary law, to investigate, prosecute and punish all acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as codified, inter alia, in the Convention against Torture (CAT). 235. As the Special Rapporteur observed, Article 14 of the ICCPR sets out the standards that must be observed before a sentence of death may be carried out. Furthermore, the United Nations Safeguards Protecting the Rights of those Facing the Death Penalty provides under article 5 that “Capital punishment may only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court after legal process which gives all possible safeguards to ensure a fair trial, at least equal to those contained in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right of anyone suspected of or charged with a crime for which capital punishment may be imposed to adequate legal assistance at all stages of the proceedings.” Only full respect for stringent due process distinguishes capital punishment as possibly permitted under international law from an arbitrary execution. 236. The men were reportedly placed in solitary confinement, and forced to confess to their involvement in the assassination of a senior Sunni cleric, who was reportedly alive at the time of their arrest, and killed several months later. These confessions should be considered invalid based on paragraph 7c of Human Rights Council Resolution 16/23 which urges States to ensure that no statement established to have been made as a result of torture is invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made. 237. Furthermore, Iran’s unrestricted use of solitary confinement, in disregard of article 7 of the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, is of grave concern. In his interim report to the General Assembly of 5 August 2011 (A/66/268), the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment defined solitary confinement, in accordance with the Istanbul Statement on the Use and Effects Solitary Confinement, as the physical and social isolation of individuals who are confined in their cells for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day. Due to clearly documented harmful mental health effects of solitarily confinement, it may only be used where absolutely necessary for as short a time as possible. When the element of psychological pressure is used on purpose, as part of isolation regimes, such practices become coercive such that they amount to torture. Moreover, solitary confinement places individuals very far out of sight of justice, exacerbating abusive practices such as arbitrary detentions, which may be at issue in this case. 238. In the absence of information to the contrary, the Rapporteur concludes that there is substance in the allegations presented in the initial communication, reiterated above, and thus, that the Government of Iran, by permitting Messrs. Hamed Ahmadi, Kamal Malaee, Jahangir Dehghani and Jamshed Dehghani, to be kept in solitary confinement and 40