ECtHR decision in Budrevich v. the Czech Republic, Application No. 65303/10 [Articles 3 and 13], 17 October 2013

Date: 
Monday, October 21, 2013

The applicant, from Belarus, sought asylum in the Czech Republic in 2006 due to a fear of imprisonment for importing advertisements in support of an opposition candidate in the Belarusian presidential elections. The Czech authorities rejected his original application and three subsequent requests as not credible. His commission of several criminal offences resulted in an expulsion order in 2009. A Rule 39 Interim Measure halted his removal to Belarus in 2010. In 2011, the applicant was granted subsidiary protection under the Asylum Act in the Czech Republic, which was extended in 2013 for 24 months, with the possibility of further extension. The applicant complains that his removal to Belarus would violate Article 3 and that the Czech authorities have not provided him with an effective remedy against removal, contrary to Article 13.

The Court ruled on Article 3 that the applicant, upon being granted subsidiary protection, which prevents deportation, had lost his status as a victim. However, the Court found in favour of the applicant on Article 13 in conjunction with Article 3. The Court decided that the relevant time for consideration of Article 13 was during the multiple asylum proceedings and the making of the expulsion order (prior to obtaining subsidiary protection). During this period, the Court ruled that the Czech authorities' consideration of the applicant's repeated requests for asylum and opposition to expulsion did not amount to the close and rigorous scrutiny of the risk of treatment contrary to Article 3, as required by Article 13 in this context.

Read the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights.



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Keywords: 
Access to the labour market
Effective remedy (right to)
Inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Subsidiary Protection
Tags: 
ECtHR
Czech Republic