24
GUZZARDI v. ITALY JUDGMENT
of emphasising the issue of deprivation of liberty with the degree of
precision called for, this was probably due to the limits on the powers of
that Court: having jurisdiction on issues of law, it could scarcely take
cognisance as an issue of fact of the situation obtaining on Asinara nor find
in the decision of the Court of Appeal any material on which it could
determine whether there existed a condition of detention incompatible with
Italian law, of which the Convention forms an integral part.
73. The Government further contended that in any event Mr. Guzzardi
would have been arguing this point before courts lacking the appropriate
jurisdiction.
The evidence shows, however, that far from declining jurisdiction the
Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation examined on the merits the
submissions made before them. The Court of Appeal, after instructing its
registry to obtain information from the carabinieri in Sassari, came to the
conclusion that neither the applicant’s state of health nor any other good
reason caused Asinara to be unsuitable as a place for compulsory residence;
the Court explained in detail why it judged a "curtailment of ... individual
legal interests taken into account by the law" to be warranted on the facts
(see paragraphs 14, 15 and 17 above). The Court of Cassation, for its part,
accepted the submissions of the public prosecutor and dismissed the appeal
as being devoid of foundation rather than inadmissible (see paragraph 19
above).
According to the Commission’s Delegates, the designation of the district
for compulsory residence, despite its character as an administrative act,
emanated from the courts even though they normally made their decision on
the basis of proposals from the Ministry of the Interior. On the other hand,
the Government maintained that in this connection the courts confined
themselves to recording the choice effected by the administrative
authorities, subject to reviewing its lawfulness. Be that as it may, an
irregularity may stem from the factual conditions prevailing in the locality
specified by the police; in substance this was what Mr. Guzzardi pleaded
had occurred in his case.
Besides, if the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation really did not
have the power to exclude Asinara on account of the duty to respect the
applicant’s physical liberty, this would simply mean, as the Commission’s
Delegates rightly emphasised, that the remedies exercised before those
courts are without relevance for the purposes of Article 26 (art. 26). In
addition, the Government did not point with sufficient precision to any other
legal remedy that might have been available in the matter to Mr. Guzzardi.
No blame can therefore be attached to him in this respect.
74. The first branch of the objection of non-exhaustion thus proves not to
be substantiated.
2. The second branch of the objection (request for a transfer)