H.L.R., who is a Colombian national and was born in 1968, is currently in France subject to a compulsory residence order. 14 May 1989 the applicant, who was travelling from Colombia to Italy, was arrested while in transit at Roissy Airport in possession of a package containing 580 grammes of cocaine.
According to the record of the interviews that took place on 16 May 1989, whilst he was in police custody H.L.R. supplied information on the instigators of the traffic and on H.B., by whom he had been recruited. That information subsequently enabled Interpol to identify H.B., who appeared in their records under two different names and had been arrested on 21 May 1989 at Frankfurt-on-Main Airport in possession of 552 grammes of cocaine. H.B. was convicted and on 23 January 1990 was sentenced by the Frankfurt-on-Main Regional Court to two years and eight months’ imprisonment; he was deported to Colombia pursuant to an order issued on 12 April 1990 by the Chief Administrative Officer (Landrat) of the district (Landkreis) of Darmstadt-Dieking.
In the meantime, on 25 September 1989, the Bobigny Criminal Court had convicted the applicant of an offence under the misuse of drugs legislation and sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment. It also made an order permanently excluding him from French territory
The applicant complained that if he were deported to Colombia he would run a serious risk of being treated in a manner contrary to Article 3 of the Convention (art. 3).
Citation: H.L.R. v France (App no 24573/94) ECHR 29 April 1997
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)