S., V. AND A. v. DENMARK - 35553/12 (Judgment : No Article 5 - Right to liberty and security : Grand Chamber)

Guido Raimondi, President, Angelika Nußberger, Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, Ganna Yudkivska, Helena Jäderblom, Robert Spano, Ledi Bianku, Nebojša Vučinić, Vincent A. De Gaetano, Erik Møse, Paul Lemmens, Krzysztof Wojtyczek, Dmitry Dedov, Jon Fridrik Kjølbro, Carlo Ranzoni, Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, Lәtif Hüseynov, judges, and Søren Prebensen, Deputy to the Registrar,

(a) for the Government Mr T. Elling Rehfeld , Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Agent , Mrs N. Holst-Christensen , Ministry of Justice, Co-Agent, Mr C. Wegener , Head of Secretariat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr J. van Deurs , Head of Department, Ministry of Justice, Advisers ;

(b) for the applicants Mr C. Bonnez , lawyer, Advokaterne Bonnez & Ziebe, Counsel , Mr T. Stadarfeld Jensen , lawyer, Mrs H. Ziebe , lawyer, Advisers .

The fight had taken the police somewhat by surprise, but they had managed to segregate the Swedish supporters at the bar D, and guide the Danish participants down Valkendorffsgade, a small side street off the pedestrian shopping street. It was a group of about fifty to sixty Danish fans altogether. He did not know the number of persons involved directly in the fight, but had understood from local reports that there were about fifty or sixty persons on either side. A fight of this kind causes a lot of uncertainty.

They had been told by the control room to select two leading hooligans from Aarhus. He and his colleague had agreed on selecting [the second and third applicants]. It had happened in a calm manner. The reason why [the second applicant] had been taken to the police station was that they had indeed seen him talking to A, combined with their prior knowledge of him. [The third applicant] had also been taken to the police station because of their knowledge of him. [The witness] had written a report on the detentions a couple of hours later.