76
A. AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT
IV. ALLEGED VIOLATION
CONVENTION
OF
ARTICLE
5
§
4
OF
THE
193. The applicants contended that the procedure before the domestic
courts to challenge their detention did not comply with the requirements of
Article 5 § 4, which states:
“Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to
take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily
by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful.”
The Government denied that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 4.
A. The parties’ submissions
1. The applicants
194. The applicants advanced two main arguments under Article 5 § 4.
Firstly, they emphasised that although it was open to them to argue before
SIAC, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords that their detention
under Part 4 of the 2001 Act was unlawful under the Convention, the only
remedy which they were able to obtain was a declaration of incompatibility
under the 1998 Act. This had no binding effect on the Government and the
detention remained lawful until legislative change was effected by
Parliament. There was thus no court with power to order their release, in
breach of Article 5 § 4.
195. Secondly, the applicants complained about the procedure before
SIAC for appeals under section 25 of the 2001 Act (see paragraph 91 above)
and in particular the lack of disclosure of material evidence except to special
advocates with whom the detained person was not permitted to consult. In
their submission, Article 5 § 4 imported the fair-trial guarantees of Article 6
§ 1 commensurate with the gravity of the issue at stake. While in certain
circumstances it might be permissible for a court to sanction non-disclosure
of relevant evidence to an individual on grounds of national security, it
could never be permissible for a court assessing the lawfulness of detention
to rely on such material where it bore decisively on the case the detained
person had to meet and where it had not been disclosed, even in gist or
summary form, sufficiently to enable the individual to know the case
against him and to respond. In all the applicants’ appeals, except that of the
tenth applicant, SIAC relied on closed material and recognised that the
applicants were thereby put at a disadvantage.
2. The Government
196. The Government contended that Article 5 § 4 should be read in the
light of the Court’s established jurisprudence under Article 13, of which it
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