E/CN.4/1993/26 page 91 may, subject to judicial authorization, be held incommunicado for five days. Families are not informed of the fact of detention or of the place where the suspect is detained. A lawyer is appointed by the court. According to informants this practice facilitates the practice of torture. 404. The Special Rapporteur made an urgent appeal on 13 March 1992 in connection with the hunger strike by a group of prisoners at the Salto del Negro prison at Las Palmas, Canaries. Their names were Itziar Arrizabalaga Osa, Patxi Cabello Pérez, Iñaki de Juana Chaos, Ander Errandonea Arruti, Esteban Esteban Nieto, Jon Etxeandi Zorroza, Jon Gaztelumendi Uribarren, Pedro Guridi Arozena, Joxean Kortadi Alustiza, Manuel Muiños García, Xabier Oregi Etxebarria, Jon Tapia Irujo, Daniel Vidal Magallanes and Jose Ma. Zabarte Arregi. The prisoners are reported to have been subjected to repeated beatings and incarceration in punishment cells. Two of them, Jon Etxeandia Zorroza and Daniel Vidal Magallanes, were severely beaten on 1 February 1992, touching off the hunger strike. It was also reported that the prisoners have not received medical attention and that some were in very bad health when visited by their families. 405. On 14 April 1992 the Government stated that there had been no beatings, ill-treatment or similar measures. The prisoners involved were serving long sentences and were subject to control and supervision for security reasons. Where prisoners were placed in solitary confinement because of insubordination and the danger they presented, the measure was taken in strict conformity with the law. This required that prisoners in solitary confinement should occupy cells similar to the remaining cells in the establishment and subject to the report of the prison doctors, who keep inmates in solitary confinement under daily observation. If the inmate is ill, he undergoes the punishment in the cell he normally occupies and has the right to an hour's exercise daily. The hunger strike was not caused by alleged ill-treatment of the prisoners. The strike, which began in late 1991 and ended on 15 March, was conducted in accordance with a preconceived general plan for ETA prisoners in all Spanish prisons to put pressure on the authorities. Before starting the hunger strike the inmates had accumulated stocks of high energy and high protein food. Throughout the strike they were kept under continuous, permanent and individualized medical observation. 406. On 21 May 1992 the Special Rapporteur made a further urgent appeal on behalf of a group of 12 prisoners in Salta del Negro prison who began another hunger strike on 24 April 1992. According to the information received the strike had been called in response to the prison authorities' failure to carry out the agreements reached earlier. The strikers' state of health was said to be giving rise to great concern. Information received by the Government with respect to cases included in previous reports 407. On 10 February 1992 a reply was received from the Government regarding the cases of María Arrate Lejarza, Estibaliz Lejarza and Jesús María Salterain, who were arrested in November 1990 and alleged to have