A/HRC/13/42* page 124 and the police, were alleged to have tortured or ill-treated detainees. Torture and other ill-treatment were used to obtain information, as punishment and to extract confessions to use as evidence in court.469 264. Yahya Bajinka, a brother of former presidential bodyguard Major Khalipha Bajinka, who was accused of being involved in the March 2006 coup plot, was arrested in April 2007 and held for over a year in secret detention. He is known to have been tortured, and was denied medical attention in an attempt to keep his detention secret in the maximum security wing of Mile II State Central Prison.470 5. Sudan 265. Detention of political dissidents, persons suspected of involvement in the activities of rebel groups, and human rights defenders by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) has long given rise to well-documented human rights concerns. In 2007, the Human Rights Committee voiced its concern at the many reports from non-governmental sources of “ghost houses” and clandestine detention centres” in the Sudan.471 In a report on the human rights situation in Darfur submitted to the Council by seven special procedures mandates holders in September 2007, it was noted that the Government had provided no information with regard to the closure of all unofficial places of detention, and that there seemed to be persistent ambiguity over persons detained under national security laws and the extent to which places of detention were known outside the NISS.472 266. The tenth periodic report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Sudan of November 2008 contained a detailed study of NISS detention practices, including secret detention, based on three years of monitoring by United Nations human rights officers and interviews with many released NISS detainees.473 In June 2009, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan reported that, in northern Sudan, the NISS continued to systematically use arbitrary arrest and detention against 469 www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR27/006/2009/en/14b4f7a1-fc1c-46d6-aabc74ae3e95e543/afr270062009eng.html. 470 www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR27/001/2008/en/9ec55ad4-ea41-11dc-9a27819d7db3035f/afr270012008eng.pdf. 471 Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/SDN/CO/3/CRP.1), para. 22. The Committee referred to the case of the arrests during the protests against the construction of the Kajbar dam in Northern Sudan and noted that, a month and a half since their arrest, the whereabouts of two of the detainees remained unknown. 472 473 A/HRC/6/19, p.69. Tenth periodic report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Arbitrary arrest and detention committed by national security, military and police (28 November 2008).