EL HASKI v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT
1
In the case of El Haski v. Belgium,
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a
Chamber composed of:
Danutė Jočienė, President,
Françoise Tulkens,
Dragoljub Popović,
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre,
András Sajó,
Işıl Karakaş,
Guido Raimondi, judges,
and Françoise Elens-Passos, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 4 September 2012,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (no. 649/08) against the
Kingdom of Belgium lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(“the Convention”) by a Moroccan national, Mr Lahoucine El Haski (“the
applicant”), on 27 December 2007.
2. The applicant, who had been granted legal aid, was represented by
Mr C. Marchand, a lawyer practising in Brussels. The Belgian Government
(“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr M. Tysebaert,
General Counsel, Federal Public Department of Justice.
3. On 12 January 2009 the application was communicated to the
Government. It was also decided to rule on the admissibility and merits of
the application at the same time (Article 29 § 1).
The United Kingdom Government and the non-governmental
organisations European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights and
Redress Trust were granted leave to submit written comments
(Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of Court).
THE FACTS
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
4. The applicant was born in 1975 and is detained in Andenne prison.
5. After studying the Koran and Sharia law, the applicant left his country
of birth, Morocco, for Syria. He stayed there from 1993 to 2002 and studied