A/HRC/13/42* page 117 Abdulaziz al-Khuraiji, Moussa al-Garni, Abdulrahman Sadeq Khan, Al-Sharif Seif Al-Dine Shahine and, allegedly, Mohammed Hasan al-Qurashi - were arrested on 2 February 2007 by agents of the Intelligence Services (Mabahith) in Jeddah and Medina and had been held in incommunicado detention at an unknown location ever since. The arrest of these men, who comprise doctors, academics, businessmen, a lawyer and a retired judge, and are all long-standing advocates of political and social reforms, was ordered by the Ministry of the Interior on the basis of allegations of financing terrorism and illegal activities. At the time of the report, the Government had not refuted the fact that the men had already been held in secret detention for 156 days, and had denied visits, access to a lawyer and the opportunity to question the legality of their detention.447 241. The experts conducted an interview with Hassna Ali Ahmed al-Zahrani, the wife of Saud Mukhtar al-Hashimi, a doctor and an advocate for civil and political liberties who, at the time, had been held for two years and nine months, including many months of incommunicado detention. Mrs. al-Zahrani explained that, on the night of 2 February 2007, her husband went out with friends (including a university professor and a judge) to attend a meeting, but never returned. She learned of his arrest when the Minister for the Interior made a public statement regarding arrests after a raid, and spoke to her husband by telephone after 10 days, when he was held in an annex to a prison run by the Public Investigations Unit (PIU). He was then held incommunicado in a PIU prison for five months until she was allowed to meet him, when he told her that he was being held in solitary confinement, and that he was also being interrogated, sometimes at night. Despite being allowed visits from his wife, Mr. al-Hashimi has never been formally charged, has not been allowed access to a lawyer and has not been brought before a judge. The reasons given for his arrest and detention vary, and they include allegations that he has been advocating reform, fund-raising or simply that he is a “suspect”.448 8. Syrian Arab Republic 242. When considering the third periodic report of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Human Rights Committee noted with concern the state of emergency that has been in force in the country since 1963, which provides for many derogations in law or practice from the rights guaranteed under articles 9, 14, 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, without any convincing explanations being given as to the relevance of these derogations to the conflict with Israel and the necessity for these derogations to meet the exigencies of the situation claimed to have been created by the conflict. The Committee also noted that the State party had not fulfilled its obligation to notify other States parties of the derogations it has made and of the reasons for these derogations, as required by article 4 (3) of the Covenant. As a consequence, the Committee recommended that State parties should ensure firstly that the measures it had taken, in law and practice, to derogate from Covenant rights were strictly required by the exigencies of the situation; secondly, that the rights provided for in article 4 (2) of the Covenant were made non-derogable in law and practice; and thirdly, that States parties were duly informed, as 447 Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, opinion No. 27/2007 (A/HRC/10/21/Add.1). 448 Interview with the wife of Saud Mukhtar al-Hashimi (annex II, case 3).