## Facts

- Khaled El-Masri, a German national, entered Macedonia on 31 December 2003 and was stopped at the border by state officials.
- He was detained incommunicado for 23 days in a Skopje hotel, interrogated about alleged terrorism links, threatened, and denied access to a lawyer or the German embassy.
- On 23 January 2004, Macedonian agents transported him to Skopje airport and handed him to a CIA rendition team.
- At the airport he was beaten, forcibly stripped, subjected to a forcible anal examination, and shackled, hooded, and transported by aircraft.
- He was flown to Afghanistan and held for approximately four months in a secret CIA detention facility, where he was kept in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated, and ill-treated.
- He was released in late May 2004, flown to Albania, and left on a roadside.
- Macedonian authorities denied involvement; the applicant’s administrative complaints, criminal complaints against unknown officials, and civil action did not produce an effective investigation or accountability.

## Issues

1. Whether Macedonia was responsible for the applicant’s detention and ill-treatment on its territory and for its role in his transfer to foreign custody exposing him to a real risk of torture and secret detention abroad.
2. Whether Macedonia violated the procedural obligations under the prohibition of ill-treatment and the right to liberty by failing to conduct an effective investigation into credible allegations of torture and secret detention.
3. Whether the disappearance, detention, and related interference with physical and psychological integrity violated the right to respect for private and family life.
4. Whether Macedonia failed to provide an effective domestic remedy for the alleged violations.

## Decision

- The Grand Chamber found violations of Article 3 (substantive and procedural) based on incommunicado detention and mistreatment in Skopje, torture at the airport during handover, exposure to a real risk of torture and secret detention through the transfer, and failure to investigate effectively.
- The Court found violations of Article 5 (substantive and procedural) based on unacknowledged, unlawful detention on Macedonian territory and responsibility for subsequent secret detention abroad due to active facilitation, plus failure to investigate.
- The Court found a violation of Article 8 based on severe interference with the applicant’s private and family life arising from disappearance, secret detention, and resulting anguish.
- The Court found a violation of Article 13 in conjunction with Articles 3, 5, and 8 because domestic avenues did not provide an effective remedy, including an effective investigation.
- The Court awarded just satisfaction for non-pecuniary harm and for costs and expenses.

## Legal Principles

- A state violates the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment when its agents directly inflict such treatment or when the state transfers a person to another authority while aware of a real risk of torture, secret detention, or comparable grave abuse.
- Responsibility may extend to subsequent ill-treatment and arbitrary detention abroad where the state actively facilitates a transfer that foreseeably results in such violations.
- Unacknowledged, incommunicado detention without legal basis, registration, access to counsel, or judicial supervision constitutes a particularly serious breach of the right to liberty and security.
- Articles 3 and 5 impose procedural duties to conduct a prompt, independent, and effective investigation capable of identifying and punishing those responsible when there are credible allegations of torture or unlawful detention.
- The combination of disappearance, secret detention, and resulting suffering can amount to a serious, unjustified interference with private and family life.
- An effective remedy for grave allegations requires more than formal procedures; it must provide a practical avenue for investigation and redress, including compensation where appropriate.

## Conclusion

The Grand Chamber held Macedonia responsible for the applicant’s secret detention and torture on its territory, for knowingly facilitating his transfer into a system of secret detention that exposed him to further torture and arbitrary detention abroad, and for failing to provide effective investigation and remedies for these violations.


El-Masri v. Macedonia, 57 Eur. H.R. Rep. 25 (Eur. Ct. H.R. 2012)