OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 71 158. Judicial review proceedings constitute, in principle, an effective remedy within the meaning of Article 13 of the Convention in relation to complaints in the context of expulsion, provided that the courts can effectively review the legality of executive discretion on substantive and procedural grounds and quash decisions as appropriate (see Slivenko v. Latvia (dec.) [GC], no. 48321/99, § 99, ECHR 2002-II).” 216. Although the Court found there would have been a violation of Article 3 if the applicant were to be expelled to Libya, it found no violation of Article 13. The Netherlands Government Minister’s decisions to reject the applicant’s asylum request and impose an exclusion order had been reviewed by a court on appeal, and the applicant had not been hindered in challenging those decisions. The disclosure of an intelligence report to a judge in the case had not compromised the independence of the domestic courts in the proceedings and it could not be said that the courts had given less rigorous scrutiny to the applicant’s Article 3 claim. The report itself had not concerned the applicant’s fear of being subjected to ill-treatment in Libya but whether he posed a threat to the Netherlands national security (paragraphs 159 and 160 of the judgment). 217. The same approach was taken in C.G. and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 1365/07, § 57, 24 April 2008 and Kaushal and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 1537/08, § 36, 2 September 2010, both of which concerned expulsion on grounds of national security. In each case, the applicant alleged the domestic courts had not subjected the executive’s assertion that he presented a national security risk to meaningful scrutiny. The Court, in finding a violation of Article 13 in each case, found: “If an expulsion has been ordered by reference to national security considerations, certain procedural restrictions may be needed to ensure that no leakage detrimental to national security occurs, and any independent appeals authority may have to afford a wide margin of appreciation to the executive. However, these limitations can by no means justify doing away with remedies altogether whenever the executive has chosen to invoke the term ‘national security’. Even where an allegation of a threat to national security has been made, the guarantee of an effective remedy requires as a minimum that the competent appeals authority be informed of the reasons grounding the expulsion decision, even if such reasons are not publicly available. The authority must be competent to reject the executive’s assertion that there is a threat to national security where it finds it arbitrary or unreasonable. There must be some form of adversarial proceedings, if need be through a special representative following security clearance.” 218. The Court finds that the approach taken in A. v. the Netherlands, C.G. and Others and Kaushal and Others, all cited above, must apply in the present case and, for the following reasons, it considers that there has been no violation of Article 13. 219. First, the Court does not consider there is any support in these cases (or elsewhere in its case-law) for the applicant’s submission that there is an enhanced requirement for transparency and procedural fairness where assurances are being relied upon; as in all Article 3 cases, independent and rigorous scrutiny is what is required. Furthermore, as C.G. and Others and