4. Procedural guarantees Figure 5: Court endorsement of detention order, EU27 Court endorsement within a maximum of four days required Court endorsement required if detention exceeds 8 to 28 days* No court endorsement required Note: In Cyprus, a court has to approve detention exceeding eight days; the same applies to Latvia for detention exceeding 10 days. In the Netherlands, a court has to review the detention decision after 28 days, unless the detainee has appealed the detention order. Source: FRA, September 2010 a decision of the Court of Magistrates, which had granted habeas corpus review under Article 409 A of the Criminal Code, arguing that once it was established that the detention was lawful under the Immigration Act the criminal courts are not competent to test whether the detention is unlawful under any other laws.183 A judicial review of the legality of the detention is in principle possible under the Fundamental Human Rights provisions in Chapter IV of the Constitution of Malta and under the 183 Report of Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mission to Malta, paragraph 47, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/ detention/docs/A-HRC-13-30-Add2.pdf. European Convention Act.184 Such judicial review tends however to be rather lengthy in time normally lasting over 18 months. This may be one reason why it is rarely used in practice.185 184 Constitution of Malta Act, Article 46; Chapter 319 of the Laws of Malta, European Convention Act, Article 4. 185 See UNDOC A/HRC/13/30/Add.2; Human Rights Council, 13th session, Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Mission to Malta 19 to 23 January 2009, paragraph 48: “It takes approximately two years for a final decision to be handed down, which exceeds the maximum immigration detention period in terms of Government policy, as described above. The Government referred the Working Group to other cases in which judgment was delivered by the court of first instance within four or five months and the appeal heard and decided within the following 41