18
AL-NASHIF v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT
concerning his family life or religious freedoms except in an appeal of
21 June 1999 which, however, had been addressed to a court that did not
have jurisdiction to deal with it.
85. The applicants described as groundless the Government's objection
in respect of the exhaustion of domestic remedies and referred to their
complaints under Article 13 of the Convention.
86. The Court observes that the first applicant and his counsel filed
numerous appeals to the courts and to other competent authorities.
However, since the impugned measures invoked national security as their
basis, none of the appeals was examined (see paragraphs 35-46 above). The
Government have not explained why they considered that the applicants
would have had a better chance of obtaining an examination of their case by
filing yet another appeal on behalf of all three of them, by challenging
Order no. 503 or by adding emphasis on their family life and religious rights
in the text of their submissions. It follows that the objection under
Article 35 § 1 of the Convention must fail.
87. Further, in their observations on the merits, the Government raised a
new objection alleging that there had been abuse on the part of the
applicants as they had not informed the Court promptly of the fact that
Mrs Saleh and her children had left Bulgaria on 29 June 2000.
88. Mr Grozev, the applicants' lawyer, explained that although he had
been made aware as early as the spring of 2000 of Mrs Saleh's financial
difficulties in Smolyan and her tentative idea of leaving Bulgaria, he had not
discussed the matter with the first applicant, who had been in Syria. The
lawyer had hoped to do so in Strasbourg before the hearing. The French
consulate in Damascus had not, however, examined Mr Al-Nashif's
application for a visa. At the hearing, not being certain about the exact facts,
the lawyer had preferred to clarify them and only then inform the Court. He
had done so immediately after the hearing, on his own initiative.
89. The Court, while it considers that an application deliberately
grounded on a description of facts omitting events of central importance
may in principle constitute an abuse of the right of petition within the
meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention, does not find it established
that such a situation obtained in the present case, regard being had to the
stage of the proceedings, to the fact that the information allegedly withheld
only concerned new developments after the deportation complained of and
to the explanation by the applicants' lawyer.
The Government's objections are therefore dismissed.
II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 5 § 4 OF THE CONVENTION
90. The first applicant complained under Article 5 § 4 of the Convention
that Bulgarian law did not provide for judicial review against his detention
and that he was detained incommunicado and could not see a lawyer.