A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 49 Response from the Government dated 20 July 2006 to both the urgent appeal dated 9 June 2006 and the communication dated 13 June 2006 204. The Government indicated that, according to information received from the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a group of 64 individuals had attempted to pass as representatives of Governmental cultural organizations such as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Islamic Guidance, or even as people from different NGOs, such as Nonahalan Emrooz (NGO for children), Koodakan Donya (Association of Protection of the Rights of the Child) and people from Shiraz Municipality Council. 205. Legal action was taken by a number of these organizations against this group. A large number of these 64 individuals are not Bahá’ís, so the action based on belief has been denied. After legal investigations, 61 persons have released 51 of them based on bail. The three remaining were eventually in custody for further investigations and finally released on bail. It has been claimed that their activities were done in the context of UNICEF’s training programmes in Shiraz. This was denied by the UNICEF Office in Teheran. Observations 206. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response and she would like to refer to her earlier observations concerning the urgent appeal sent on 16 February 2006 also regarding the situation of Bahá’í followers in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kazakhstan Urgent appeal sent on 9 December 2005 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture 207. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding an unknown number of Uzbek asylum seekers, including Abdurakhman Ibragimov, Tohirjon Abdusamatov, Shoimat Shorakhmedov, who were registered asylumseekers, Alisher Mirzakholov, Abdurauf Kholmuratov, Alijon Mirganiev, Farkhod Islamov and possibly Rukhiddin Fakhrutdinov, a former imam from Tashkent. According to the information received, they were arrested in southern Kazakhstan starting from 23 November 2005. Their whereabouts are not known. All of them are wanted by Uzbek authorities on charges of “religious extremism.” Concern is expressed that these persons may be at risk of torture or illtreatment if they are returned to Uzbekistan. 208. Moreover, the Special Rapporteur on torture received information concerning 10 persons, including Nozim Rakhmonov, an asylum-seeker who had registered his application with UNHCR, Azomodin Kosimjonov and Sharafutdin Latipov. According to the information received, they were arrested by Kazakhstani authorities on 28 November 2005 in Shymkent, and handed over to the Uzbek authorities at the border between the two countries later that same night. They are now in the custody of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tashkent. No judicial review of the cases had taken place before the return.