30 Yvon Feuillé.126 Two of these detentions, those of Yvon Neptune and Jocelerme Privert, are also mentioned in the Secretary General’s report on MINUSTAH of February 2006, emphasizing that these persons had been detained for about 17 months and still no date had been set for a hearing.127 In his 2006 report, the United Nations independent expert on Haiti mentioned that: [P]retrial detention supposes that the procedural time limits will be respected. If, at the end of the maximum period, the charges are substantiated, pretrial detention can be justified. If, on the other hand, the allegations are not well-founded and the prisoner remains in detention, doubt is permissible. When such a situation persists, in addition to the fact that it constitutes a serious illegality in the case of any prisoner, whether under ordinary law or not, it tends to confer a political dimension on such extended pretrial detentions where they involve individuals who exercised responsibilities or discharged functions of any kind under a previous government. […] 128 a) The alleged unlawfulness and arbitrariness of Mr. Neptune’s detention (Article 7(2) and 7(3) of the Convention) 94. The Commission did not allege that Article 7(2) and 7(3) of the Convention had been violated. 95. The representative alleged belatedly that the deprivation of liberty to which Mr. Neptune was subjected did not correspond to the reasons and conditions established beforehand by the Haitian Constitution or by the laws enacted pursuant thereto. 129 He affirmed that the proceedings against Mr. Neptune violated Article 186 of the 1987 Haitian Constitution from the very moment that the investigating magistrate issued the arrest warrant, because the ordinary courts did not have competence to hear the case of a Prime Minister who had committed a crime or a misdemeanor in the exercise of his functions, as the Gonaïves Court of Appeal acknowledged three years later.130 In addition, he stated that “these violations of national and international law [indicated above], mean that Mr. Neptune’s detention was arbitrary.” 131 96. Article 7(2) of the Convention establishes “[n]o one shall be deprived of his physical liberty except for the reasons and under the conditions established beforehand by the Constitution of the State Party concerned or by a law established pursuant thereto.” This subparagraph of Article 7 recognizes the main guarantee of the right to physical liberty: the legal reservation, according to which, only a law can affect the right to personal liberty. The legal reservation must necessarily be accompanied by the principle of legal definition of the offense (tipicidad). Thus, Article 7(2) of the Convention refers automatically to domestic 126 Cf. United Nations, Economic and Social Council. Situation of human rights in Haiti: report prepared by the independent expert, Louis Joinet, supra note 66, paras. 59-67. 127 Cf. Report of the Secretary General on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), S/2006/60, of 2 February 2006. para. 45. This situation had already been reported in the report of May 6, 2005, S/2005/302, in para. 30, and in the report of 25 February 2005, S/2005/124, in paras. 37 and 58. 128 Cf. United Nations, Economic and Social Council. Situation of human rights in Haiti: report prepared by the independent expert, Louis Joinet, 26 January 2006, E/CN.4/2006/115, para. 44. 129 Cf. Final written arguments presented by the representatives, supra note 65, para. 70 (folio 285). 130 Cf. Final written arguments presented by the representatives, supra note 65, para. 71 (folio 285). 131 Final written arguments presented by the representatives, supra nota 65, para. 74 (folio 285).