Last October, the Belgium government, through the initiative of Minister of Justice Annemie Turtelboom, extradited Nizar Trabelsi to the United States. The government decided not to wait for a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on Mr. Trabelsi's application against the extradition, in which he expressed concerns about his treatment in the US.

Belgium ignores Court of Human Rights

The Belgian government's unilateral decision to approve the extradition request of the US, where Mr. Trabelsi faces terror charges, effectively canceled his last remaining legal recourse. The decision also violated the country's obligation to wait for the judgment of the ECtHR, which issued an interim measure in 2011 blocking the extradition until a final decision could be rendered. The government made several requests to have the interim measure lifted, all of which were denied by the Court. The country then went ahead with the extradition in October 2013.

Nizar Trabelsi was convicted of illegal weapons possession and other charges by a Belgian court in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. US authorities sent an extradition request to Belgium in 2008, after issuing a warrant for his arrest on charges relating to a planned attack on a military base. Mr. Trabelsi was concerned not only about the day-to-day treatment he would receive while in US custody, but also of the possibility of receiving a life sentence without parole.

Extradition violated human rights

In its decision on September 5, 2014, the Court of Human Rights ruled that while life sentences are not inherently disproportionate, Belgium did violate Article 3 (prohibiting torture and inhumane or degrading treatment) of the Convention on Human Rights by extraditing him to a country where a conviction could carry an irreducible life sentence. The ECtHR also said that Belgium failed to honor its commitments to the Convention by extraditing Mr. Trabelsi before the Court's final judgment on the case.

The League of Human Rights welcomes this decision. The ECtHR's ruling reinforces the understanding that all citizens are equal before justice, regardless of any other consideration. Respect for fundamental rights can suffer no exception, even for someone like Mr. Trabelsi, and Belgium's decision to extradite him invites questions about the application of law in the country. The decision violated his human rights and the country's international obligations, and showed a lack of respect for the European Court of Human Rights.

The Court awarded Mr. Trabelsi 90,000 euros for damages and expenses.