30 AL-NASHIF v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT possibilities of recourse with certain procedural guarantees and independent review. In the case of Amann v. Switzerland ([GC], no. 27798/95, ECHR 2000-II) the applicant could appeal to a court. In those cases no violation of Article 13 of the Convention was found. No appeal was available to the applicant in Rotaru v. Romania ([GC], no. 28341/95, ECHR 2000-V) – a case that also concerned the storage and use of secret information – and the Court found a violation of Article 13 of the Convention (see also Hewitt and Harman v. the United Kingdom, no. 12175/86, Commission report of 9 May1989). 137. The Court considers that in cases of the expulsion of aliens on grounds of national security – as here – reconciling the interest of preserving sensitive information with the individual's right to an effective remedy is obviously less difficult than in the above-mentioned cases where the system of secret surveillance or secret checks could only function if the individual remained unaware of the measures affecting him. While procedural restrictions may be necessary to ensure that no leakage detrimental to national security would occur and while any independent authority dealing with an appeal against a deportation decision may need to afford a wide margin of appreciation to the executive in matters of national security, that can by no means justify doing away with remedies altogether whenever the executive has chosen to invoke the term “national security” (see the above cited Chahal judgment and paragraph 96 above on possible ways of reconciling the relevant interests involved). Even where an allegation of a threat to national security is made, the guarantee of an effective remedy requires as a minimum that the competent independent appeals authority must be informed of the reasons grounding the deportation decision, even if such reasons are not publicly available. The authority must be competent to reject the executive's assertion that there is a threat to national security where it finds it arbitrary or unreasonable. There must be some form of adversarial proceedings, if need be through a special representative after a security clearance. Furthermore, the question whether the impugned measure would interfere with the individual's right to respect for family life and, if so, whether a fair balance is struck between the public interest involved and the individual's rights must be examined. 138. As no remedy affording such guarantees of effectiveness was available to the applicants, the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 13 of the Convention. V. ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLE 9 AND OF ARTICLE 13 IN CONJUNCTION WITH ARTICLE 9 OF THE CONVENTION 139. The first applicant complained that his deportation had been a reaction to and a punishment for his lawful religious activities and had therefore constituted an unjustified interference with his rights under