The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg has ruled that Slovakia will have to pay €15,000 in compensation to Mustafa Labsi, whom it deported to Algeria in April 2010. The main reason for the ruling was Slovakia’s breach of a preliminary ECHR provision which had ordered it not to send Labsi back to Algeria, his home country, the Sme daily reported.
The court senate in Strasbourg did not accept the reasons Slovakia gave for the deportation. The government at the time said that it believed the Algerian government’s promises not to torture Labsi, who was accused of terrorism-related crimes.
“The ruling is important satisfaction also for other cases in the future, but in fact it cannot heal the impacts of the illegal deportation of Labsi to Algeria,” said Labsi’s lawyer, Marian Hrbáň, as quoted by Sme.
Labsi arrived in Slovakia in 2007, when he was detained by police after crossing the border. He sought asylum several times, claiming that he could be tortured if he returned to Algeria since he was considered by the country’s authorities to be a terrorist. Though both Slovakia’s Supreme Court and the ECHR forbade the then government from deporting Labsi, he was sent to Algeria in 2010.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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