Information Note on the Court’s case-law 236
January 2020
Savran v. Denmark (referral) - 57467/15
Judgment 1.10.2019 [Section IV]
Article 3
Expulsion
Proposed deportation of person suffering from serious mental illness without assurances from his State of origin as to the availability of supervision to accompany intensive outpatient therapy: case referred to the Grand Chamber
The applicant, a Turkish national diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, entered Denmark in 1991 when he was six years old. In 2007 he was convicted of assault under highly aggravating circumstances, which had caused the death of a man. He was sentenced to committal to a secure unit of a residential institution for the severely mentally impaired for an indefinite period and was made subject to an expulsion order. In 2014 the City Court held that, regardless of the nature and gravity of the crime committed, the applicant’s health made it conclusively inappropriate to enforce the expulsion order. In 2015 that decision was reversed by the High Court and the applicant was subsequently refused leave to appeal.
In a judgment of 1 October 2019 (see Information Note 233) a Chamber of the Court found, by four votes to three, that the applicant’s expulsion would constitute a violation of Article 3 should it be carried out without the Danish authorities having obtained individual and sufficient assurances that appropriate treatment would be available. This would be the case even though the threshold for the application of Article 3 was high in cases concerning the removal of aliens suffering from serious illness (see Paposhvili v. Belgium [GC], 41738/10, 13 December 2016, Information Note 202).
On 20 January 2020 the case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the Government’s request.
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This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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