HASSAN v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION 57 PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE SPANO JOINED BY JUDGES NICOLAOU, BIANKU AND KALAYDJIEVA I. 1. This case concerns Tarek Hassan, a 22-year-old Iraqi and avid football player, who was captured by British soldiers on the morning of 23 April 2003 during the invasion of Iraq, while at his home in Umm Qasr, a port city in the region of Bashrah. After going through a screening process at Camp Bucca, where he was deemed to be a civilian posing no security threat, he was detained for over a week, at which point he was finally released in or near Umm Qasr on 2 May 2003 (see paragraphs 47-58 of the judgment). 2. I fully agree with the Court’s conclusions that Tarek Hassan fell within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom from the moment of his capture by British troops until his release from the bus that took him from Camp Bucca to the drop-off point (see paragraph 80 of the judgment). However, as it is clear that Tarek Hassan was deprived of his liberty, the principal question that arises in this case is whether his internment by the United Kingdom was permitted under Article 5 § 1 of the Convention. 3. The Government have not argued that the capture and subsequent detention of Tarek Hassan were implemented with the intention of bringing criminal charges against him. The majority thus concludes correctly (see paragraphs 96-97) that his deprivation of liberty was not permitted under any of the grounds for such a limitation of his fundamental rights that are provided exhaustively in sub-paragraphs (a) to (f) of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention. In particular, the Government’s submission that the capture and detention was permissible under Article 5 § 1 (c) cannot be accepted, as the Government do not argue that Tarek Hassan was, at least, suspected of being a civilian taking a direct part in hostilities and thus not enjoying combatant privilege, his actions possibly being criminal under the laws of Iraq or the United Kingdom as the detaining power. Furthermore, the facts as they are assessed by the Court (see paragraphs 47-58) do not allow for such a characterisation of the events of 23 April 2003. It follows that the Government’s limited argument is that Tarek Hassan’s capture and detention for nine days at Camp Bucca was based only on him being either a prisoner of war or a civilian posing a threat to security. 4. On this basis, and for the first time in the Court’s history, a Member State to the Convention invites the Court to “disapply its obligations under Article 5 or in some other way to interpret them in the light of powers of detention available to it under international humanitarian law” (see para-