ECtHR decision in Barjamaj v. Greece (No. 36657/11) [Article 5 ECHR]

The applicant is an Albanian national who had been living without authorisation in Greece for ten years. In 2011, while he was still a minor, he was arrested and remanded in custody pending a decision on his expulsion. When this decision was taken, his detention was extended in order to prevent him from absconding. After spending a total of 14 days in detention, he was released upon an order of the administrative court of Athens. By the time of the judgment, the expulsion order had not been executed. Before the Court, Mr. Barjamaj complained that he had not been notified of the first detention order, and that he had been notified of the second one too late, which had deprived them of the possibility of challenging its lawfulness. The Court finds a violation of Article 5(1) of the Convention as it is not satisfied that the first detention order was ever communicated to the applicant. In addition, this first detention was supposed to last only for three days, and the applicant was only notified of the expulsion and the extension of his detention three days after the expiration of that period. Consequently, the Court concludes that he was detained for three days without a legal basis and deprived of the possibility to challenge the decision extending his detention, in violation of Article 5(1).

Read the full text of the judgment on the Court's website.

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