5.  The applicant was born in 1962 and lives in Békéscsaba. 6.  On 15 September 1998 criminal proceedings were instituted against the applicant – who had lived in Hungary since 1986 – and his accomplices on charges of aggravated fraud and other offences. 7.  On 8 March 1999 the police withdrew the applicant's passport in view of the pending prosecution. The applicant did not appeal against an administrative decision of 15 April 1998 confirming this measure, which thus became final on 18 May 1999. 8.  In 1999, and then on 15 August and 12 December 2000 and 16 December 2002 the applicant requested that his passport be returned to him; the last occasion related to his attending his grandmother's funeral in the Ukraine. His requests were to no avail. In pursuit of his subsequent request of 17 October 2005, on 11 January 2006 he was informed that the authority in charge was unable to locate his passport. The passport was found and returned to him only on 11 September 2006. 9.  Meanwhile, on 24 July 2002 the Budapest Public Prosecutor's Office preferred a bill of indictment in the case. 10.  After several hearings, on 26 April 2007 the applicant was acquitted.