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09.06.2010

Press release issued by the Registrar

GRAND CHAMBER HEARING
AL-SKEINI AND OTHERS AND AL JEDDA v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today Wednesday 9 June 2010 at 9.15 a.m. in the case of Al-Skeini and Others and Al Jedda v. the United Kingdom (application nos. 55721/07 and 27021/08).

The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ().

These two cases concern the killing and detention of Iraqi civilians by the UK armed forces in Southern Iraq and raise issues of extra-territorial jurisdiction under Article 1 (obligation to respect human rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

On 20 March 2003, a United States of America-led coalition, including British armed forces, invaded Iraq. Basra captured by British troops in Southern Iraq and Baghdad by the United States troops, the United Kingdom became an occupying power as of 1 May 2003 under the relevant provisions of the regulations annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. The occupation of Iraq came to an end on 28 June 2004 when the Iraqi Interim Government assumed full responsibility and authority for governing the country. Between those two dates, in the post-conflict period, the British forces remained in Iraq, together with other coalition forces, operating under a joint command headed by a US general. The UN Security Council (“UNSC”) adopted a series of binding resolutions in which the multinational force was given the authority to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq in accordance with their obligations under international law, including those relating to the essential humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. The British troops assumed two main functions: maintaining security and providing support for the provisional administration of Iraq.

Al-Skeini and Others
The applicants, Mazin Jum’Aa Gatteh Al-Skeini, Fattema Zabun Dahesh, Hameed Abdul Rida Awaid Kareem, Fadil Fayay Muzban, Jabbar Kareem Ali and Colonel Daoud Mousa are Iraqi nationals who live in Basra.

The applicants’ six close relatives were killed in Basra during the period (1 May 2003 to 28 June 2004) when the United Kingdom was an occupying power. All but three of the victims were shot dead or shot and fatally wounded by British troops, either on patrol or carrying out raids. The third applicant’s wife was shot and fatally wounded during an exchange of fire between a British patrol and a number of gunmen. The fifth applicant’s son was arrested and taken to a local hospital where he was allegedly beaten and then forced to swim across the Zubair river where he drowned. The sixth applicant’s son, at work in a hotel in Basra, was seized by British troops and taken to a British military base in Basra. Brutally beaten by British troops at the base, he subsequently died of his injuries.

In March 2004, the Secretary of State for defence decided not to conduct independent inquiries into or accept liability for the deaths of the applicants’ relatives and not to pay just satisfaction. The applicants applied for judicial review of those decisions before the British courts. Ultimately, in a judgment of 13 June 2007 the House of Lords found that none of the victims in the first five applicants’ cases, killed as a result of military operations in the field, were under the actual control and authority of British troops at the time since they were outside the “legal space” of the signatory States of the European Convention. As for the facts of the sixth applicant’s complaints, it was accepted that they fell within the United Kingdom’s jurisdiction as part of an exception to the territorial principle (exercise of authority by agents of the State) and the parties agreed that the case should be remitted to the Divisional Court for reconsideration of whether there had been an adequate investigation. In the meantime, court martial proceedings have been brought against a number of individuals involved in the death of the six applicant’s son, on charges ranging from manslaughter to negligent performance of duty.

The applicants allege that their relatives were within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom under Article 1 of the Convention when they were killed through the acts of the British armed forces. They complain under Article 2 (right to life) and, in the case of the sixth applicant Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and or degrading treatment), about the failure to carry out a full and independent investigation into the circumstances of each death.

Al Jedda
The applicant, Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda, born in Iraq in 1957, is a British and Iraqi national who is currently living in Istanbul, Turkey. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1992, where he was granted asylum and subsequently British nationality.

In September 2004 the applicant travelled from London to Iraq. He was arrested there in October 2004 by United States troops, accompanied by Iraqi national guards and British soldiers, on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group involved in weapons smuggling and explosive attacks in Iraq. He was taken to a detention centre in Basra run by British forces. At each periodic review of his detention it was concluded that he remained a threat and that it was still necessary to intern him. He was released on 30 December 2007.

The applicant roundly denied the allegations against him. No criminal charges were brought against him.

In June 2005 he brought a judicial review claim before the British courts, challenging the lawfulness of his continued detention and the refusal to return him to the United Kingdom. The courts held that UNSC Resolution 1546 and successive resolutions authorised British forces within the multi-national force to use internment “where necessary for imperative reasons of security in Iraq” and that such binding Security Council decisions superseded all other treaty commitments. Resolution 1546 therefore overrode Article 5 (right to liberty and security) in relation to the applicant’s detention in Basra. This decision was ultimately upheld by the House of Lords.

Relying on Article 5 § 1, the applicant complains about his detention in Basra.

***

The cases were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 11 December 2007 and 3 June 2008, respectively. They were relinquished to the Grand Chamber under Article 30 on 19 January 2010.
They will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:

Jean-Paul Costa (France), President,
Christos Rozakis (Greece),
Nicolas Bratza (the United Kingdom),
Françoise Tulkens (Belgium),
Josep Casadevall (Andorra),
Giovanni Bonello (Malta),
Elisabeth Steiner (Austria)
Lech Garlicki (Poland),
Ljiljana Mijović (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg),
David Thór Björgvinsson (Iceland),
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre (Monaco),
George Nicolaou (Cyprus),
Luis López Guerra (Spain),
Ledi Bianku (Albania),
Ann Power (Ireland),
Mihai Poalelungi (Moldova), judges,
Corneliu Bîrsan (Romania),
Egbert Myjer (the Netherlands),
Boštjan M. Zupančič (Slovenia), substitute judges,

and also Michael O’Boyle, .

Representatives of the parties

Government:	Derek Walton, Agent,
	James Eadie, Cecilia Ivimy, Sam Wordsworth, Counsel;
	Linda Dann, Helena Akiwumi, Advisers;

Al-Skeini and Others

Applicants:	Rabinder Singh, Shaheed Fatima, Naina Patel, Phil Shiner, Daniel Carey, Tessa Gregory, Jim Duffy, Counsel;

Al Jedda

Applicant:	Rabinder Singh, Raza Husain, Shaheed Fatima, Takis Tridimas, Helen Law, Phil Shiner, Daniel Carey, Tessa Gregory, Jim Duffy, Counsel. 

***

After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which will be held in private. Its ruling in the case will, however, be made at a later stage.

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The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.