The violation of the detention time limit for deportation constitutes a violation of the ECHR
JUDGMENT
R.M. v. Turkey 13-06-2017 (no. 81681/12)
SUMMARY
Provisional detention for deportation of 32 months. Excessive duration. Infringement of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the ECHR.
PROVISION
Article5 § 1
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, R.M., is an Uzbek and Turkish national who was born in 1988 and lives in Istanbul (Turkey). The case essentially concerned his detention pending extradition for 32 months.
Wanted by the Uzbek prosecuting authorities for establishing a criminal organisation and causing bodily harm, R.M. was arrested in Turkey in September 2009 on the basis of an international arrest warrant. A month later a first-instance court ordered his detention pending extradition. Six months later, that decision was quashed by the Court of Cassation because it was considered manifestly inappropriate and the case was transferred to the Assize Court. The proceedings then lasted another year before this court, with the trial being adjourned six times pending receipt of information from the Uzbek authorities, and ended in June 2011 with a judgment again ordering R.M.’s detention. The Court of Cassation upheld this judgment in March 2012. R.M. was however ultimately released in May 2012 because he had, in the meantime, been granted subsidiary protection status by the Ministry of the Interior and a temporary residence permit. He has since also acquired Turkish nationality.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Relying in particular on Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security), R.M. notably complained that his detention pending extradition had been unlawful and excessively long.
Violation of Article 5 § 1 – on account of the excessive length of R.M.’s detention between 9 September 2009 and 9 May 2012
Just satisfaction: EUR 10,000 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 3,320 (costs and expenses)