E/CN.4/1994/31 page 48 222. Information was also received about conditions prevailing in some of the main prisons in the Cairo area, in particular the Tora Istikbal and Abu Za’bal Liman prisons. According to the reports, security detainees are tortured as a matter of routine during interrogation by the SSI prior to their transfer to prison, and sometimes are secretly removed from prison to be tortured in SSI custody. Methods of torture consist inter alia of beating with electric prods and leather whips with pieces of metal attached. The following individual cases were communicated. 223. Dr. Mohammed As-Sayyid Said and Amir Salem, members of the board of trustees of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, and Hisham Mubarak, a lawyer, were arrested in August 1989 for their alleged membership of the Egyptian Workers’ Communist Party and taken to the Abu Za‘bal Liman prison. As a consequence of the beatings to which they were reportedly subjected Hisham Mubarak suffered a haemorrhage in his right ear and temporary loss of hearing, in addition to scars on his back and on the back of his head. He also was unable to move his right leg as a result of blows directed at his spine. 224. It was also reported that medical care is often denied to prisoners who urgently require treatment or who have been recommended for specialized care at outside hospitals. Some prisoners allegedly died in prison hospitals or in their cells because of poor and non-existent medical care. This was the case of Talip Kilich, a 52-year-old Turkish prisoner at Qanater, who died in his cell after he was allegedly beaten by jail warders on 27 July 1991. It was also the case of Mohammed Mahmoud Shak, a Somali prisoner at Qanater, who died on 29 November 1991 after he was allegedly severely beaten for attempting to escape. Despite the 75 lashes authorized (with head, arms and legs tied on a piece of wood shaped like a cross), about one hundred warders were said to have taken turns at beating him. He was later transferred to an underground cell where he died. He was allegedly not given any treatment for the wounds he sustained. 225. By the same letter of 26 August 1993 the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government of allegations of torture transmitted in 1992, regarding which no reply has been received. Observations 226. The Special Rapporteur shares the concern and alarm of the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/SR.170, para. 2) in respect of the serious problem of terrorism in Egypt. The terrorist acts are carried out by groups preposterously invoking religion to justify vicious attacks, often directed against civilians, Egyptian and foreign. He is also concerned by the Committee’s assessment that torture is routinely practised in Egypt and that the difficult situation cannot justify departures from the absolute prohibition of torture, in respect of suspected terrorists or anyone. He endorses the Committee’s suggestions and recommendations, in particular those aimed at putting an end to incommunicado detention and at bringing to justice those responsible.