Mr B.B., a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is currently subject to an order requiring him to reside in the Val d’Oise département. He is suffering from the Aids virus compounded by Kaposi’s syndrome and presents signs of acute immunosuppression.
The applicant was born in Kinshasa in 1954. He arrived in France in 1983 and was given leave to remain that was successively renewed until 1988, when, owing to the employment situation, he was refused a further renewal. He returned to Zaïre in December 1988, but came back to France in December 1989 because of the political situation there. Shortly afterwards, he made an application for political refugee status to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA). His application was rejected in 1993. That decision was confirmed in 1995 after his application had been reconsidered.
On 22 January 1995 the applicant was charged with transporting, possessing, offering to supply, buying and selling drugs and immigration offences. He was arrested that day and committed to stand trial before the Bobigny Criminal Court.
On 8 September 1995 the Bobigny Criminal Court acquitted the applicant on the counts of transporting, offering to supply, and buying and selling drugs but found him guilty of possessing drugs and unlawfully entering and staying in France. It sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment and made an order permanently excluding him from French territory. Between November 1995 and 27 March 1996 the applicant served his sentence at Fleury-Mérogis Prison, where Dr Lemaire certified that the applicant was HIV-positive.
Mr B.B. applied to the Commission on 2 April 1996. He relied on Article 3 of the Convention, complaining that if he was deported to what was formerly Zaïre that would amount to treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention as it would reduce his life expectancy because he would not receive the medical treatment his condition demanded. He also argued that his deportation would infringe his right to respect for his family life as guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention.
Citation: B.B. v France (App no 30930/96) ECHR 7 September 1998
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)