Franz Ulrich Kinsky sued the Czech state more than 100 times for land taken in 1945, and Strasbourg ruled his trials unfair

Franz Ulrich Kinsky was born in Vienna in 1936^†. His father was a member of the Sudeten German Party^†, and the Czech government later called him "an apparent sympathiser of the Nazi regime". In 1945 Czechoslovakia confiscated the family's land under Presidential Decree No. 12/1945. He said that he, then eight, had been the owner and that no one had represented him. He filed more than 100 civil suits against the state, towns and companies. Czech police valued the claims at 50 to 60 billion korunas, about 2 to 2.4 billion euros. In 2003 some courts ruled for him. The deputy Petr Nečas called the rulings "absolutely insane". The Minister of Culture said he opposed returning property "to active Nazis or their children". From January 2004 the Ministry of Justice made the courts report on his cases every month. Police opened a fraud investigation into Kinsky and his lawyer, then suspended the case in April 2006. In November 2005 the Constitutional Court ruled that an ownership suit could not be used to get round the restitution laws. His cases were then dismissed. He died in 2009 and his son Carlos continued. On 9 February 2012 the European Court of Human Rights found a breach of the right to a fair trial and awarded 10,000 euros, but no property. In 2013 the Czech government admitted the same breach in ten more cases and offered 25,000 euros. No court has ordered any of the land returned^†.