(Grand Chamber) The applicant, a German national of Lebanese origin, alleged that he had been subjected to a secret rendition operation, namely that agents of the respondent State had arrested him, held him incommunicado, questioned and ill-treated him, and handed him over at Skopje Airport to CIA agents who had transferred him, on a special CIA-operated flight, to a CIA-run secret detention facility in Afghanistan, where he had been ill-treated for over four months. The applicant submitted in evidence certain diplomatic cables. The court referred to articles in which journalists had reported that the US Ambassador in Germany had informed the German authorities that the CIA had wrongly imprisoned the applicant. The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations was cited under the heading ‘Relevant International Law and Other Public Material’, but only as to the obligation of competent authorities of the receiving state to inform the consular post of the sending state without delay of the arrest of one of its nationals under Article 36.
Held: The Court found Mr El-Masri’s account to be established beyond reasonable doubt and held that ‘the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ had been responsible for his torture and ill-treatment both in the country itself and after his transfer to the US authorities in the context of an extra-judicial ‘rendition’.
The court was careful in its findings not to rely on the leaked cables or on what the US Ambassador was said to have said to the German Government.
Nicolas Bratza, P
39630/09 – HEJUD, [2012] ECHR 2067, 34 BHRC 313, (2013) 57 EHRR 25
Bailii
European Convention on Human Rights
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Bancoult, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Admn 11-Jun-2013
The claimant, displaced from the Chagos Archipelago, challenged a decision by the respondent to create a no-take Marine Protected Area arround the island which would make life there impossible if he and others returned. The respondent renewed his . .
Cited – Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis v DSD and Another SC 21-Feb-2018
Two claimants had each been sexually assaulted by a later notorious, multiple rapist. Each had made complaints to police about their assaults but said that no effective steps had been taken to investigate the serious complaints.
Held: The . .
Cited – Belhaj and Another v Straw and Others SC 17-Jan-2017
The claimant alleged complicity by the defendant, (now former) Foreign Secretary, in his mistreatment by the US while held in Libya. He also alleged involvement in his unlawful abduction and removal to Libya, from which had had fled for political . .
Cited – Reprieve and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v The Prime Minister Admn 30-Jun-2020
Standing may not be enough for JR
The claimants sought judicial review of the defendant’s decision that it was no longer necessary to establish a public inquiry to investigate allegations of involvement of the United Kingdom intelligence services in torture, mistreatment and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights, International
Leading Case
Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.467121