The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Czech investigators made mistakes in the case of a Roma man who apparently committed suicide while in custody. The court awarded roughly half a million crowns to the man’s family in compensation for damages, on the grounds that his death was never thoroughly and independently investigated. The 2002 case involved a 23-year-old Roma man suspected of having stolen a videotape recorder. After several hours in detention he leapt from an eight-metre high window while being escorted. Lawyers from the League of Human Rights argued that the investigation had been carried out by the same police officers who had the man in custody and failed to describe what had gone on during the six hours he was detained. The European court found that he police had erred in not using handcuffs and leading the man past a window without bars.