A/HRC/7/4 page 22 1. Situations illustrating the concerns of the Working Group 60. The Working Group has in several Opinions and Decisions15 considered the detention of individuals to be arbitrary who were or had been preventively detained for a considerable period of time, ranging up to more than 13 years, without charge or trial by States invoking emergency laws and allegedly in the context of countering terrorism. The individuals concerned remain in detention despite one or even numerous decisions taken by various courts ordering their release. In these cases, the executive simply disregarded the ruling of the courts or issued a new warrant of administrative detention upon which the individuals concerned were immediately taken into custody again. 61. Other cases the Working Group has dealt with in the context of countering terrorism and pursuant to special powers attached to states of emergency, concern, for example, potentially indefinite administrative detention orders alleged to have been carried out for security reasons;16 or detention for security reasons ordered or legalized by a court of law where, however, the persons subsequently charged with a crime were not in a position to defend themselves effectively since the incriminating evidence was kept secret by invoking the necessity to protect the State;17 detention of immigrants deemed to pose a terrorist threat;18 or detention following trials before special courts seriously lacking fair trial guarantees.19 62. The Working Group is further concerned about general tendencies in some States to make use of old security laws adopted to combat a specific threat, which have remained in force after the disappearance of that particular situation. Nowadays they are resorted to by Governments to preventively detain without judicial scrutiny, charge or trial, opposition politicians, academics, trade unionists, human rights activists, or even individuals who have committed relatively minor offences, labelling them as extremists, militants, or deviants. 63. Recent events have yet again brought to light the relevance of the Working Group’s concerns and recommendations made earlier. States of emergency are still being declared with the constitutional order, including fundamental rights and freedoms, suspended. In the course of the imposition of a state of emergency high ranking judges, lawyers and bar association members, human rights defenders, and opposition politicians are arrested or put under house 15 Opinions Nos. 21/2007, 22/2007 and 24/2007 (to be published in the next annual report), Opinions Nos. 3/2007, 6/2007, and 9/2007 (addendum 1 to this report), Opinion No. 5/2005 (E/CN.4/2006/7/Add.1), Decision No. 45/1995 (E/CN.4/1997/4/Add.1), and Decision No. 61/1993. See also Opinion No. 3/2003 (E/CN.4/2004/3/Add.1). 16 E/CN.4/2006/7/Add.2, paras. 84-85. 17 Opinion No. 43/2006 (addendum 1 to this report), Opinion No. 26/2007 (to be published in the next annual report). 18 Opinion No. 37/2007 (to be published in the next annual report). 19 Opinion No. 8/2007 (addendum 1 to this report).