5.  The applicant was born in 1969 and lives in Budapest. 6.  At the material time, the applicant lived in the United States. On 14 January 2001 she arrived in Hungary on a visit. She had a laptop with her which she had bought on 9 January 2001 in the United States for 1,624 US dollars (approximately 1,500 euros (EUR) at that time). She did not declare it to the airport customs authority, since in her opinion it constituted a ‘travel item’, exempted from customs duty, within the meaning of section 110 of Act no. C of 1995 and section 185(3) of the implementing Decree of the Act. 7.  Although she specified to the authorities that she was living abroad and had no intention of importing the laptop into Hungary but intended to take it back to the United States on departure, the customs authority nevertheless seized the laptop and filed a criminal report, charging the applicant with smuggling. 8.  A bill of indictment was preferred by the Budapest X/XVII District Public Prosecutor’s Office on 28 April 2001. In the bill of indictment, the prosecutor proposed that the seizure of the laptop be discontinued according to section 102(1) of Act no. I of 1973 on the Code of Criminal Procedure and that the applicant be ordered to pay the value of the item instead of its confiscation. 9.  On 9 May 2001 the Pest Central District Court, without holding a hearing, found the applicant guilty as charged, imposed a fine of 23,000 Hungarian forints (HUF; approximately EUR 90) and ordered the release of the laptop on the payment of another HUF 100,000 (approximately EUR 390) as ‘value equivalent to confiscation’ (elkobzás alá eső érték). 10.  On 23 June 2001 the applicant requested a hearing, seeking her acquittal. 11.  No hearing took place subsequently, and the laptop remained under seizure. 12.  On 24 April 2006 the District Court found that the case was statute-barred and discontinued the proceedings. It ordered the release of the laptop. This decision became final on 2 June 2006. 13.  On 28 June 2006 the customs authority invited the applicant to recover the laptop. 14.  The applicant submitted that during these proceedings she had moved back to Hungary. On her repatriation, she could have imported her belongings, including the laptop, free of customs. However, its release was in these circumstances nevertheless subject to the payment of customs duty. Since the laptop had meanwhile become technically outdated and thus worthless, she decided to have it returned to the United States rather than recover it.