Procedural safeguards relating to expulsion of an alien for reasons of national security : some comments on the case of Chakib Marakchi

The article analyses the case of the Moroccan citizen Chakib Marakchi who was expelled from Poland in 2009 on security grounds and his personal data were inserted into the Schengen Information System. The expulsion decision, which had been upheld by the administrative organ of second instance and the Regional Administrative Court in Warsaw, was eventually quashed by the Supreme Administrative Court in December 2011 and the case was remitted for rehearing. Marakchi and his legal counsel attempted to have access to the reasons given for the expulsion. The article explores which legal measures are available under Polish law (including the Constitution) and the European Convention on Human Rights to the expelled individual. In the context of the European Convention of special importance is Article 1 of Protocol no. 7 and the relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg Court requires that the reasons given for expulsion order are verified by the appeal organs (or/and courts). Furthermore, in some states there exists a special lawyer who may access classified documents (security-cleared counsel in Canada and special advocate in the UK and New Zealand). No such measures are known in Polish law.