A/HRC/7/10/Add.1 page 65 (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977. While these Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners are not legally binding, they seek to set out what is generally accepted as being good principle and practice in the treatment of prisoners and the management of institutions. Rule 41 provides: “(1) If the institution contains a sufficient number of prisoners of the same religion, a qualified representative of that religion shall be appointed or approved. If the number of prisoners justifies it and conditions permit, the arrangement should be on a fulltime basis. (2) A qualified representative appointed or approved under paragraph (1) shall be allowed to hold regular services and to pay pastoral visits in private to prisoners of his religion at proper times. (3) Access to a qualified representative of any religion shall not be refused to any prisoner. On the other hand, if any prisoner should object to a visit of any religious representative, his attitude shall be fully respected.” Urgent appeal sent on 18 December 2006 280. The Special Rapporteur brought to the attention of the Government information she had received according to which prison guards had allegedly attempted to force four Muslim detainees in Rikers Island Jail in Queens, NY, to become Christians. It is reported that on 18 February 2006 around 1 p.m., the inmates Dr. Mohammed Adnan Bhutta, Mr. Gerry Smith, Mr. Khaleek Hoyle and Mr. Joseph M. Smart were brought to the Rikers Island prison gym where they were told by two Captains, in the presence of several Christian priests, to convert to Christianity. Upon the inmates’ refuse, the Captains as well as around ten prison guards allegedly became angry and tried to force the detainees to convert to Christianity. These events are reported to have created a fearful atmosphere for the Muslim detainees in Rikers Island Jail. Observations 281. The Special Rapporteur regrets that she has not received a reply from the Government concerning the above mentioned allegation. She would like to take the opportunity to refer to her framework for communications, more specifically to the international human rights norms and to the mandate practice concerning “Freedom from coercion” (see above para. 1, category I. 2.) and with regard to “Persons deprived of their liberty” (see above para. 1, category III. 2.). Urgent appeal sent on 31 May 2007 jointly with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants 282. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding Mr. Natarajan Venkataram, 43-years-old, a US citizen and Indian by birth, currently detained at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. According to the information received, Mr. Venkataram emigrated from India to the United States in 1988 and later became the Director of the Medical Examiner's Management Information Systems Department of the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner, a position he held for 15 years. In 2005 he was charged with embezzling more than USD 10 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency cash allocated for a computer system that analyzes DNA and was used to identify the bodies after the attacks of 9 September 2001 on the World Trade Center in New York. On 7 December 2005 he was arrested, however, no arrest warrant was shown to him. 283. Since then he has been detained at the high-security Metropolitan Detention Center. His first bail application was reportedly denied for the sole reason that he was not a US citizen. After