A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 64 and several other crimes. By decision of the chamber for criminal affairs of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 29 November 2006 the sentence was reduced to 10 years and 6 months of imprisonment for Mr. Shaikhutdinov, 9 years for Mr. Gumarov and 8 years and 1 month for Mr. Ishmuratov. The appeal on cassation of the three convicts was rejected. Observations 270. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response and she would like to refer to her most recent annual report to the Human Rights Council where she also covers the issue of “Violations linked to counter-terrorism measures” (A/HRC/4/21, para. 40): “The Special Rapporteur is conscious of the fact that the States’ obligation to protect and promote human rights requires them to take effective measures to combat terrorism. However, she would like to underline that States must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.” 271. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur would like to refer to her framework for communications, more specifically to the international human rights norms and to the mandate practice concerning “Persons deprived of their liberty” (see above para. 1, category III. 2.) and “Prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” (category IV. 3.). As she noted in her 2005 report to the General Assembly, “[t]he religious beliefs of a detainee should under no circumstances be used by the authorities against the detainee in order, for instance, to extract information from him or her.” (A/60/399, para. 90). Saudi Arabia Urgent appeal sent on 27 September 2006 jointly with the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 272. The Special Procedures mandate holders drew the attention of the Government to information they had received regarding Hadi Saeed Al-Mutif, aged 31, a prisoner at Najran Prison. According to the information received, in October 1993, he enrolled at Narjan Police Training Camp. On 20 January 1994, he was arrested for making a blasphemous comment in the presence of other recruits. In December 1994, his trial began on charges of apostasy, which carries a discretionary death sentence. In 1995, he was sentenced to death but his relatives did not receive a copy of the judgment or the sentence. In 1999, King Abdullah, the then Crown Prince, refused to sign the execution warrant, but his sentence was not officially commuted to life imprisonment. On 5 or 6 September 2006, he began a hunger strike and was placed in solitary confinement. There are concerns that the severity of his sentence may be linked to the fact that he is a member of the Ismaili Shi’ite community. 273. The Special Rapporteurs expressed their concerns with regard to the circumstance that, if the allegations were correct, he has been detained for twelve years in a state of constant uncertainty as to whether he will be executed or not. There are, moreover, concerns that the sentence may have been particularly severe due to the fact that Hadi Saeed Al-Mutif is a member of the Ismaili Shi’ite community.