An illegal Armenian migrant won the case against French government in the EU court.

Court of Justice of the European Union considered the dispute between the French government and citizen of Armenia Alexander Ashughbabyan who illegally entered France in 2008 and was arrested refusing to be deported. Then he was under administrative detention for illegal stay in France.

The court ruled an illegal migrant cannot be imprisoned for not having documents. However, the judgment also said the state can bring illegal migrants pending deportation to the detention center, Nouvelles d` Arménie reports.

European law "against the national legislation which provides for a sentence of imprisonment of illegally residing third-country national who comes from a process of return," says a court ruling in Luxembourg.

French law envisages a year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euro for the citizen of the third country illegally staying in France for over three months without the required documents and visas.

European legislation does not prohibit detention in order to determine the legality of a citizen of the third country, but, as noted by the court, the national authorities are obliged to act “diligently and make in shorter period of time.”

Nevertheless, the court marked that French legislation is leading to imprisonment during the procedure of returning the citizen to his country, which is contrary to the European legislation.