MEDVEDYEV AND OTHERS v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 5 immediately notified the persons concerned that they were being placed in police custody and informed them of their rights. 19. On the same day, the applicants were presented to an investigating judge at the police station in Brest, to determine whether or not their police custody should be extended. The reports submitted to the Grand Chamber by the Government show that certain applicants met one of the investigating judges (R. André) at 5.05 p.m. (Mr Cabrera Leon), 5.10 p.m. (Mr Sage Martínez), 5.16 p.m. (Mr Balaban), 5.25 p.m. (Mr Manolache), 5.34 p.m. (Mr Petcu) and 5.40 p.m. (Mr Dodica), and the other applicants (Mr Medvedyev, Mr Bilenikin and Mr Boreas) were heard by the second investigating judge (B. Simier) at an unspecified time. The applicants were presented to the same investigating judges again the following day, 27 June 2002 (Mr Sage Martínez at 5.05 p.m., Mr Cabrera Leon at 5.10 p.m., Mr Manolache at 5.20 p.m., Mr Balaban at 5.28 p.m., Mr Dodica at 5.35 p.m. and Mr Petcu at 5.40 p.m.; the times for the other three applicants are not known). 20. On 28 and 29 June 2002 the applicants were charged and remanded in custody pending trial (Mr Petcu, Mr Dodica, Mr Balaban and Mr Manolache on 28 June, and Mr Medvedyev, Mr Bilenikin, Mr Boreas, Mr Cabrera Leon, Mr Sage Martínez and two other crew members – Mr Litetski and Mr Theophanous – on 29 June). 21. The applicants applied to the Investigation Division of the Rennes Court of Appeal to have the evidence disallowed, submitting that the French authorities had acted ultra vires in boarding the Winner, as the ship had been under Cambodian jurisdiction and Cambodia was not party to the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances signed in Vienna on 20 December 1988, and also that they had not been brought “promptly” before a judge, as required under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention, when the Winner was intercepted. 22. In a judgment of 3 October 2002, the court dismissed their appeal and held that there were no grounds for disallowing the evidence. After retracing the details of the operations, including the fact that “on 13 June at 6 a.m. the French frigate spotted a merchant ship – first on its radar, then visually – travelling at slow speed and flying no flag, and identified it as the Winner”, it pronounced judgment in the following terms: “Considering that the international effort to combat drug trafficking is governed by three conventions: the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 30 March 1961, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed at Montego Bay on [10] December 1982, and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, signed in Vienna on 20 December 1988; while France has signed and ratified all three conventions, Cambodia has not signed the Vienna Convention, Article 17 § 3 of which provides for derogations from the traditional principle of the ‘law of the flag State’.