AL-NASHIF v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT 19 Article 5 § 4 provides: “Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful.” 91. The Government submitted that detention pending deportation was intended to be so short that no judicial review would normally be called for and that the Bulgarian authorities had not been responsible for the fact that Mr Al-Nashif could not be deported immediately after his arrest. 92. The Court reiterates that everyone who is deprived of his liberty is entitled to a review of the lawfulness of his detention by a court, regardless of the length of confinement. The Convention requirement that an act of deprivation of liberty be amenable to independent judicial scrutiny is of fundamental importance in the context of the underlying purpose of Article 5 of the Convention to provide safeguards against arbitrariness. What is at stake is both the protection of the physical liberty of individuals as well as their personal security. The person concerned should have access to a court and the opportunity to be heard either in person or through some form of representation (see the De Wilde, Ooms and Versyp v. Belgium judgment of 18 June 1971, Series A no. 12, §§ 73-76, the Winterwerp v. the Netherlands judgment of 24 October 1979, Series A no. 33, §§ 60 and 61, the Kurt v. Turkey judgment of 25 May 1998, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-III, § 123, and Varbanov v. Bulgaria, no. 31365/96, ECHR 2000-X, § 58). 93. In the present case it is undisputed that in Bulgarian law no judicial appeal lies against detention pending deportation in cases where the deportation order is issued on grounds of national security (see paragraphs 67-70, 77 and 78 above). As a result, the first applicant's attempts to obtain judicial review of the lawfulness of his detention were to no avail (see paragraphs 42-45 above). 94. In accordance with the relevant law and practice, the decision whether a deportation and detention order should invoke national security with the automatic consequence of excluding any judicial review of lawfulness - is fully within the discretion of the Ministry of the Interior. No court is empowered to enquire into the lawfulness of the detention. The detention order itself, as in the present case, states no reasons (see paragraphs 68-72 above). Moreover, Mr Al-Nashif was detained practically incommunicado and was not allowed to meet a lawyer to discuss any possible legal challenge to the measures against him. That is a situation incompatible with Article 5 § 4 of the Convention and its underlying rationale, the protection of individuals against arbitrariness. National authorities cannot do away with effective control of lawfulness of detention by the domestic courts whenever they choose to assert that national security and terrorism are involved (see the Chahal v. the United Kingdom judgment of 15 November 1996, Reports 1996-V).