90
A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
entitled to receive any form of financial compensation because they were
properly suspected, on objective and reasonable grounds, of involvement in
terrorism and had failed to displace that suspicion.
246. The Government pointed out that Part 4 of the 2001 Act was passed
and the derogation made in good faith, in an attempt to deal with what was
perceived to be an extremely serious situation amounting to a public
emergency threatening the life of the nation. The core problem with the
detention scheme under the 2001 Act, as identified by SIAC and the House
of Lords, was that it did not apply to United Kingdom as well as foreign
nationals. Following the House of Lords’ judgment, urgent consideration
was given to the question what should be done with the applicants in the
light of the public emergency and it was decided that a system of control
orders should be put in place. Against this background, it could not be
suggested that the Government had acted cynically or in flagrant disregard
of the individuals’ rights.
247. In addition, the Government submitted that no just satisfaction
should be awarded in respect of any procedural violation found by the Court
(for example, under Article 5 §§ 4 or 5), since it was not possible to
speculate what would have happened had the breach not occurred (see
Kingsley v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 35605/97, ECHR 2002-IV, and
Hood v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 27267/95, ECHR 1999-I).
248. In the event that the Court did decide to make a monetary award, it
should examine carefully in respect of each head of claim whether there was
sufficient supporting evidence, whether the claim was sufficiently closely
connected to the violation and whether the claim was reasonable as to
quantum.
3. The Court’s assessment
249. The Court reiterates, firstly, that it has not found a violation of
Article 3 in the present case. It follows that it cannot make any award in
respect of mental suffering, including mental illness, allegedly arising from
the conditions of detention or the open-ended nature of the detention
scheme in Part 4 of the 2001 Act.
250. It has, however, found violations of Article 5 §§ 1 and 5 in respect
of the first, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh
applicants and a violation of Article 5 § 4 in respect of the first, third, fifth
and tenth applicants. In accordance with Article 41, it could, therefore,
award these applicants monetary compensation, if it considered such an
award to be “necessary”. The Court has a wide discretion to determine when
an award of damages should be made, and frequently holds that the finding
of a violation is sufficient satisfaction without any further monetary award
(see, among many examples, Nikolova v. Bulgaria [GC], no. 31195/96,
§ 76, ECHR 1999-II). In exercising its discretion the Court will have regard
to all the circumstances of the case, including the nature of the violations
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