You have the right to challenge the lawfulness of your detention and request compensation in a case of unlawful detention.
Complaint
When you are detained by the Police, you should be immediately informed that you have the right to challenge the lawfulness of your detention. You can challenge your detention if you are detained as an asylum seeker or as an irregular immigrant. You should submit your complaint challenging the lawfulness of your initial detention to an Administrative Court within 3 days.
What to write
When submitting your complaint, you should try to explain your situation, including all the relevant facts, as well as the reasons as to why you believe that you should not be, or should not have been, detained.
Compensation
If you wish to ask for compensation because you believe that your detention was unlawful, you should do this together with the application challenging your detention. You can seek compensation for material damages as well as moral compensation. Material damage is a material loss, like the salary that you did not earn because you were unlawfully detained. Moral compensation may be granted for the humiliation and suffering you went through because of the unlawful detention.
Decision of a judge
A judge has to make a reasoned decision when considering the lawfulness of detention. The judge must evaluate whether there were any grounds to detain you, bearing in mind the specific circumstances of your case. The decision must not be merely formal and generic. The judge should evaluate all of the facts that the authorities have about you and are relevant to your situation.
Appeal
In certain cases, you can appeal the decision of the judge to the Supreme Court within 15 days after receiving the decision. The exact procedure and the time limits for the appeal must be indicated in the judge’s decision. The cases in which you can appal the decision of the judge are described in Articles 73 – 95 of the Administrative Dispute Act.