M.P. – Court Ruling (Czech Republic, 2025)

The controller was the Police of the Czech Republic. The data subject was a man who, in 2003, had been convicted of causing bodily harm and attempted murder committed in a particularly brutal manner and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment along with mandatory outpatient treatment for alcohol addiction. He had prior criminal convictions. On 17 February 2021, while the data subject was still serving his sentence, a police forensic technician took his fingerprints, collected biological samples capable of revealing genetic information, measured his body and took photographs , relying on § 65 of the Police Act, which allows police to collect such data from persons serving a sentence for an intentional criminal offence, for the purpose of future identification. To carry out these procedures, the data subject was escorted from prison to a police facility by police officers, who restrained him with handcuffs. The data subject brought proceedings against the police alleging an unlawful interference with his rights, based on two separate grounds: (1) that the identification procedures themselves were unlawful, because the processing of his personal data was not necessary given his advanced age, deteriorated health and low risk of reoffending, because his transfer to the police outside the prison did not comply with § 42a(1) of the Execution of Sentences Act and (2) that his physical restraint during the escort was unlawful. The regional court dismissed his claim regarding the identification procedures, finding that his criminal history and the severity of his offences justified the interference. In a related, separately handled case concerning the escort itself, a different court later found that the escort had indeed been unlawful, because the police lacked legal authority to remove him from prison other than for the specific purpose defined in § 42a(1) and this finding was not challenged on appeal. The data subject appealed the dismissal regarding the identification procedu