MEDVEDYEV AND OTHERS v. FRANCE JUDGMENT 7 the lives of the sailors on board the speedboat; that it was also reported that the crew of the Winner were seen to be throwing suspicious parcels overboard, one of which was recovered and found to contain a large quantity of cocaine; that all these elements together amounted to reasonable grounds for the commander of the frigate to suspect that he was in the presence of drug traffickers who had jettisoned their cargo before attempting to escape; and that by using force to board the Winner and taking appropriate coercive measures to control the crew and confine them to their cabins and to take over and sail the ship, the commander of the frigate acted in strict compliance with: – the provisions of Article 17 § 4 of the Vienna Convention under which, if evidence of involvement in illicit traffic is found after a ship has been boarded and searched, appropriate action may be taken with respect to the vessel and the persons and cargo on board, – the provisions of the Law of 15 July 1994 as supplemented by the Law of 29 April 1996, which, in its general provisions (Articles 1 to 10) regulates recourse to coercive measures comprising, if necessary, the use of force in the event of refusal by a ship to submit to control and also, in the particular case of the fight against drug trafficking (Articles 12 to 14), makes provision for the implementation of the control and coercion measures provided for under international law. Considering that, regard being had to the distinctly aggressive conduct of the captain of the Winner in attempting to evade inspection by the French naval authorities, and to the attitude of the crew members, who took advantage of the time thus gained to eliminate any traces of the drug trafficking by deliberately throwing the evidence overboard, the members of the commando unit who boarded the ship found themselves in the presence of large-scale international trafficking and were likely at any moment to come up against a hostile and potentially dangerous crew who could threaten the security of their mission; that they were obliged to use their weapons in response to the resistance put up by one of the ship’s crew; that it cannot be claimed that Article 13 of the Law of 15 July 1994 as amended provides only for administrative assistance measures and excludes any form of coercion in respect of people when it stipulates in general terms that the competent maritime authorities are authorised to carry out or have carried out ‘the inspection and coercion measures provided for in international law’, and Article 17 § 4 (c) of the Vienna Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs [and Psychotropic Substances] expressly mentions taking ‘appropriate action with respect to the persons on board’; that although the nature of these measures is not specified, the text at least provides for the possibility for the competent naval authorities to limit, if necessary, the freedom of the boarded ship’s crew to come and go, otherwise the provision would be meaningless and the safety of the men taking over control of the ship would be seriously jeopardised; that it cannot be ruled out in the course of such operations against international drug traffickers on the high seas that the crew may have weapons hidden away and may seek to regain control of the ship by force; that consequently, confining the members of the crew of the Winner – all but the wounded man, who was transferred to the frigate – to their cabins under the guard of the commando unit, so that the ship could be safely taken over and rerouted, fell within the appropriate measures provided for in Article 17 § 4 (c) of the Vienna Convention. Considering that the Law of 15 July 1994 necessarily requires some departure from ordinary criminal procedure to allow for the specific needs of the effort to combat drug trafficking by ships on the high seas, in keeping with the rules of international