Case summaries

The fact that a party to proceedings has an unknown residence must always be proven in a credible manner, as must the exact determination of an address of residence in the territory of the Slovak Republic, and this obligation rests with the Court, which must exhaust all possibilities in determining whether the participant’s address really is unknown, or whether his address is other than the one known to the Court. Everyone has the right to have their case heard in court in their presence and to be able to comment on all of the evidence (Article 38(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, Article 48(2) of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic).

This case concerned an appeal against a decision of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to refuse a grant of asylum. Having regard to a report from the country of origin, the MOI classified the applicant´s account as not credible. In his appeal, the applicant challenged this decision on the grounds that the MOI did not ascertain the real state of affairs, using only one source of information. The appeal was successful. The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) held that the country of origin information must be verified from various sources and laid down other conditions for using the country of origin information.

Application for annulment of a decision by the Minister of Public Order

This case concerned the interpretation of Presidential Decree 61/1999 in light of Directive 2004/83/EC andexamined the reasoning of the Administration's decision in an application for recognition as a refugee, in an appeal for annulment. The minutes of the Advisory Committee should cite not only the interested party's claims but also the content of the questions put by members of the Committee and the alien's responses, as well as a detailed assessment of the claims and of any documentation or other evidence which may have been submitted. There is an obligation on the members of the Committee to deliver a reasoned judgment on the credibility of the asylum seeker.