Facts
The complainant, a national of Gabon, entered Switzerland in 1991 and filed an asylum application, which was rejected. He was expelled from Switzerland and was in deportation detention in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, he was sentenced to three days in prison for violating the Federal Act on the Residence and Settlement of Foreigners (RSFNA). In 1999, he was sentenced to four months in prison with conditional execution and to five years of unconditional expulsion for fraud, forgery, unlawful appropriation, and violation of the Road Traffic Act.
On April 17, 2000, the Governor of Bern I ordered deportation detention upon release, and the next day, he filed a corresponding application with the Detention Court III Bern-Mittelland. On April 28, 2000, the detention judge 5 at the Detention Court III Bern-Mittelland reviewed and confirmed the detention.
The complainant filed an administrative appeal with the Federal Court on May 7, 2000, requesting that the detention judgment of April 28/May 2, 2000, be revoked and that he be released from detention immediately.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined the admissibility of the complainant's renewed detention after nine months of deportation detention. It found that the complainant had already been in deportation detention from July 11, 1996, to March 7, 1997, and from October 29 to November 27, 1997.
The court found that the maximum detention period of nine months had been exhausted and that renewed detention was only possible under narrow conditions. However, it examined whether the re-ordering of deportation detention…