40
AUAD v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT
was arrested with a view to deportation less than a month after that, on
17 November 2009 (see paragraphs 8-13 and 15 above). He cannot therefore
be regarded as a settled migrant who has developed a private life in Bulgaria
(contrast Maslov v. Austria [GC], no. 1638/03, § 63, 23 June 2008, and
Miah v. the United Kingdom (dec.), no. 53080/07, § 17, 27 April 2010). On
the contrary, his stay in Bulgaria has been brief and at all times precarious
(see, mutatis mutandis, N.M. and M.M. v. the United Kingdom (dec.), nos.
38851/09 and 39128/09, 25 January 2011). Article 8 is not therefore
applicable.
112. It follows that this complaint is incompatible ratione materiae with
the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a)
and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4.
III. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 13 OF THE CONVENTION
113. The applicant complained under Article 13 in conjunction with
Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention that the Supreme Administrative Court
had not genuinely scrutinised whether he represented a risk for national
security, had refused to examine whether he would risk ill-treatment or
death if expelled to Lebanon, and had not considered whether such
expulsion would be proportionate.
114. Article 13 provides as follows:
“Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated
shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the
violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”
A. The parties’ submissions
115. The Government submitted that the applicant had been able to
challenge the order for his expulsion in judicial review proceedings, in the
course of which he had been able to acquaint himself with all documents in
the case file and seek to rebut the assertions of the authorities. In judicial
review proceedings, the courts reviewed whether the administrative decision
had been issued by a competent authority, in due form, and in compliance
with the rules of administrative procedure and substantive law. In the
applicant’s case, the Supreme Administrative Court had done just that. It
had examined the arguments of the parties and had given reasons for finding
against the applicant. It is true that the question whether the applicant faced
a risk of ill-treatment upon expulsion had been raised before that court.
However, since the proceedings concerned the lawfulness of the expulsion
order, the court had deemed that question to be irrelevant. Domestic courts
could review only specific administrative decisions. The applicant did not
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