Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 132

July 2010

Babar Ahmad and Others v. the United Kingdom (dec.) - 24027/07, 11949/08 and 36742/08

Decision 6.7.2010 [Section IV]

Article 3

Degrading punishment

Inhuman punishment

Extradition

Extradition orders entailing risk of effective detention for life and virtual solitary confinement for lengthy periods in US “supermax” facilities: admissible

Facts – The four applicants are due to be extradited from the United Kingdom to stand trial on terrorism charges in the United States after their appeals to the domestic courts against the Secretary of State’s orders for their extradition were dismissed. Evidence has been produced to the European Court which indicates that, if extradited, the first, third and fourth applicants will risk a term of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, while the second applicant (who is thirty-five years old) faces a fifty-year sentence. Although the applicants accept that the Court’s judgment in the case of Kafkaris v. Cyprus ([GC], no. 21906/04, 12 February 2008, Information Note no. 105) is authority for the proposition that the imposition of a life sentence would not in itself violate Article 3 provided it was reducible, they argue that none of the ways a sentence can be reduced in the United States meet that test in practice. They also allege that, if convicted, all but the fourth applicant (who suffers from a medical condition) would be liable to serve their sentences (and possibly the rest of their lives) in a “supermax” high-security facility (ADX Florence). They say that conditions in such facilities are stringent, with detainees facing a regime of virtual solitary confinement and significant periods confined to their cells. In support of their claims, they have produced a report by a psychiatrist which states that, while a “supermax” prison regime does not amount to sensory deprivation, there is an almost total lack of meaningful human communication; this tends to induce a range of psychological symptoms ranging from panic to psychosis and emotional breakdown within sixty days. They are concerned also that their situation may be compounded by the imposition of special administrative measures, involving almost complete solitary confinement and restrictions on their communications and visiting rights.

Admissible under Article 3 – detention in a “supermax” prison (first, second and third applicants) and in respect of the possibility of life imprisonment without parole (first, third and fourth applicants) or of a lengthy fixed-term sentence (second applicant). Remaining complaints inadmissible (manifestly ill-founded).

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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