On December 4, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Ali Samatar and Others v. France and Hassan and Others v. France (French only) that France had violated Article 5 § 3 (right to be brought promptly before a judge) of the European Convention on Human Rights when, upon their arrest in Somalia for piracy and transfer to France, the applicants were transferred to police custody instead of being taken directly to an investigating judge.  According to the press release, the Court ruled that France did not violate Article 5§ 1 (right to liberty and security) of the Convention when French authorities arrested the Somali applicants on Somalian territory because “the applicants had been able to foresee, to a reasonable degree in the circumstances of the case, that by hijacking the [French vessels] and taking [French citizens] hostage they might be arrested and detained by the French forces for the purposes of being brought before the French courts.”  However, because of the long detention during the trip from Somalia to France, the suspects should have been “brought immediately before an investigating judge.  There was nothing to justify that additional delay.”