Prague - The European Court of Human Rights last week ordered the Czech government to pay EUR 2,000 in damages to Mohamed Magdi Mansour Rashed for violating his rights as an asylum seeker two years ago.

The Egyptian man filed an asylum petition at Prague Airport in August 2006. The Interior Ministry turned down his petition on 9 September, but the man was not allowed to leave the country until June 2007, after being held in asylum centres for 10 months.

Last Thursday the Strasbourg court ruled that the Czech authorities had violated Rashed's basic rights. The verdict backed previous findings published by Czech Ombudsman Otakar Motejl, who had criticized Czech authorities for their asylum procedures and for unsuitable conditions in asylum centres.

"No decision was issued during Mohamed Magdi Mansoura Rashed's 10-month detention in the asylum centre in Velké Přílepy," Motejl's office wrote on its website.

The Strasbourg court also backed Motejl's previous finding that the Czech asylum laws valid until 21 December 2007 did not sufficiently protect asylum seekers from arbitrary infringements of personal freedom.