E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1 Page 87 Zahid Ahmed, Mr. Hashmat Ali, Mr. Abdul Majeed, Shamsulhaq, Mr. Muhammad Aslam and Mr. Muhammad Abid, former detainees of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They were among a group of forty-five men originally arrested four years ago in Afghanistan. 414. According to the information received, while they were in custody in Guantanamo Bay, the aforementioned were victims of ill-treatment, such as sexual harassment during prayers as well as humiliation through desecration of the Holy Koran, which was deliberately designed to hurt their religious beliefs. Observations 415. The Special Rapporteur is grateful to the Government for its detailed reply and would like to refer to the joint report that she submitted with the Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, on the situation of detainees at Guantánamo Bay (E/CN.4/2006/120). Uzbekistan Communication sent on 4 May 2005 with the Special Rapporteur on torture 416. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government the situation of Mr. Iskander Tolipov, UYa-64/18 Prison infirmary, Tashkent, who was imprisoned in KIN -36 Prison, Navoi City, from 17 December 2004 to 17 February 2005. When he arrived at the prison, guards stood in lines on either side of him and beat him with truncheons. The guards prohibited him from praying or reading the Koran. When he protested this rule, guards handcuffed and beat him several times with truncheons on his chest and lower back and on the soles of his feet. After one of the beatings, the prison director, Ziyodullal Madievich, asked him “Do you understand the rules now?” After he replied that he would continue to pray, the director instructed to the guards, “It seems he does not understand the rules, continue.” He was also threatened with sexual assault. For refusing to stop his religious activity, he was later punished with six months in a damp isolation cell, without heating or bedding. He became ill, and since 17 February 2005 he has been held in the UYa-64/18 Prison infirmary, Tashkent, suffering from tuberculosis. Iskander Tolipov was sentenced to seven years’ and six months’ imprisonment on 24 March 2002 for membership in an illegal religious organisation. Response from the Government dated 1 July 2005 417. The Government informed that Iskander Tolipov was convicted of a number of offences on 24 March 2002 and was sentenced to seven and a half months deprivation of liberty. He is currently serving his sentence at UYa-64/36 in the city of Navoi. It informed that no unlawful actions had been taken by the administration of the prison. Furthermore, he did not show any signs of torture or ill-treatment when he