E/CN.4/1994/31 page 113 537. Another urgent appeal was sent to the Government, on 7 October 1993, on behalf of Kokou Okesson Mbooura, a teacher in Kétao, reportedly arrested on 27 August 1993 in Blitta while trying to locate a member of his family arrested the previous day in connection with the disturbances that broke out in Agbandi at the end of August. He was allegedly being held incommunicado at the Kara gendarmerie in the north of the country and fears were expressed that he might be tortured or ill-treated. 538. On 13 October 1993 the Government informed the Special Rapporteur that some people had been arrested at Agbandi on 26 August 1993 for having damaged electoral equipment and had been taken to the Brigade de Gendarmerie in Blitta. Kokou Okesson Mboura was one of the persons who visited the detainees. Also on 26 August some of them had been poisoned after eating food provided by visitors. Kokou Okesson Mboura had been arrested as he was delivering food containing syringes to one detainee. According to the report made by a toxicologist the syringes contained a very dangerous poison. The judicial authorities of Sokode had issued an order of detention against him and he had been taken to the civil prison in Kara. He had never complained before the judge about ill-treatment and received regular visits from his wife. He could also have access to his lawyer. The latter, however, had not yet asked the judge for permission to see his client. 539. In the light of the response provided by the Government the source stated that, without disputing the findings of the police laboratory, its main concern arose from the fact that no autopsies were carried out on the bodies of those who died, either to investigate allegations of torture or to establish the cause of death. The Government reply did not contain any response to allegations that the detainees died as a result of torture, ill-treatment and asphyxiation after 40 of them were crammed into a small cell. No inquiry into these serious allegations appeared to have been carried out. Tunisia Urgent appeals 540. During the period under review the Special Rapporteur sent three urgent appeals to the Government which are described in the following paragraphs. The dates on which they were sent appear in parentheses at the end of the corresponding summaries. 541. Abderrazak Hamzaoui, a student at the University of Tunis, was reportedly arrested on 19 September 1992 in the Ben Arous district of Tunis and taken to the Kasserine police station, where he was allegedly tortured and denied access to his family and lawyer. Concern was expressed for his health since he was said to have suffered osteomyelitis as a child, which had left him with weakened bones in his left leg. (18 December 1992) 542. On 28 January 1993 the Government replied that Abderrazak Hamzaoui had been arrested under suspicion of being a militant member of an unauthorized association that advocated violence and holding illegal meetings. The Department of the Public Prosecutor had been informed, on the same day, of his arrest. During the investigation which followed, he had admitted that he