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Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence

[2017] UKSC 1, [2017] UKSC 2 (2017)

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Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence

United Kingdom Supreme Court
[2017] UKSC 1, [2017] UKSC 2 (2017)

Facts

In April 2010, Taliban commander Serdar Mohammed (SM) (defendant) was captured by British forces in Afghanistan following a 10-hour firefight during which several people were killed or wounded. British forces detained SM in a military holding facility for over three months and then transferred SM to Afghan authorities. SM challenged aspects of his detention under Article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which provides that no person may be deprived of liberty except in six specified circumstances and as provided by law. SM also asserted a violation of Article 5(4) of the ECHR, under which detainees must be entitled to engage in proceedings to challenge the lawfulness of their detentions. SM asserted that he had no outside contact or access to legal assistance while in detention and thus had no practical way to file an application for a writ of habeas corpus or otherwise challenge the detention’s legality through an impartial internal-review proceeding. The trial court and court of appeal found, among other things, that British forces in Afghanistan had the authority to detain prisoners for no longer than 96 hours before turning the prisoners over to Afghan authorities. The British government appealed to the United Kingdom Supreme Court.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Sumption, J.)

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