18 OTHMAN (ABU QATADA) v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT expert witness with security clearance to see the material, Lord Phillips did not regard the problem as unfair. SIAC’s rules of procedure enabled the special advocate to ask SIAC to call for more evidence and SIAC, as an expert tribunal, could be relied upon “to make a realistic appraisal of the closed material in the light of the special advocate’s submission”. In respect of the assurances, Lord Phillips endorsed the view that the assurances contained in the MOU had to be disclosed but details of the negotiations leading to the MOU could be closed material. 55. Lord Hoffmann rejected the applicant’s argument on the more fundamental basis that he viewed this Court’s case-law as making it clear that the determination whether a deportation order might infringe Article 3 did not require “the full judicial panoply of article 6 or even 5(4)”. Citing Chahal, cited above, he emphasised that all that was required was “independent scrutiny of the claim”, which had occurred in the applicant’s case. 56. Lord Hope agreed, albeit accepting that this Court had not yet had the opportunity to analyse whether the SIAC system met the requirements of the Convention. In his view, it did so. Lord Brown also agreed, emphasising that with regard to safety on return, no case was being made against the applicant; rather it was he who was making a case against the returning State. (b) Article 3: assurances and the MOU 57. Lord Phillips (with whom the other Law Lords agreed) construed the this Court’s case-law from Mamatkulov and Askarov, cited above, onwards as treating assurances “as part of the matrix that had to be considered” when deciding whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the applicant would face treatment contrary to Article 3. He referred to the “abundance” of international law material, which supported the proposition that assurances should be treated with scepticism if they are given by a country where inhuman treatment by State agents was endemic. However, for Lord Phillips this came “close to a ‘Catch 22’ proposition that if you need to ask for assurances you cannot rely on them”. In rejecting that proposition, he held that the only basis to interfere with the view of SIAC was if its conclusions that the assurances could be relied upon were irrational and SIAC’s conclusions in the present case were not. (c) Article 5 58. The House of Lords unanimously refused to interfere with the finding of fact by SIAC that the applicant’s exposure under Jordanian law to 50 days’ detention without access to a court or a lawyer, would not arise. Lord Phillips found that, even if it would arise, 50 days’ detention would not constitute a flagrant breach of Article 5. A flagrant breach was a breach whose consequences were so severe that they overrode the right of a State to