According to ParlamentniListy.cz, a news service of elected representatives of the Czech Republic, Czech authorities will again discuss whether to grant asylum to Timur Borchashvili, an ethnic Chechen from Georgia whose previous application was rejected and whom Senator Jaromír Štětina has helped hide in the Czech Republic to prevent his expulsion.

The Czech Interior Ministry Wednesday issued a card of an asylum seeker to him on 21 July 2010, Wednesday, thus legalising his stay in the country, Štětina said.

“We gave the card of an asylum seeker to him Wednesday,” said the Czech Interior Ministry’s Asylum and Migration Policy Department head Tomáš HaiÅ¡man and confirmed the information.

Senator Jaromír Å tÄ›tina said the ministry extended the deadline for its decision on Borchashvili’s asylum application until December 31, 2010.

The authorities twice decided not to grant asylum to Borchashvili, a citizen of Georgia, in the past. He applied for Czech asylum in 2007 and in 2009, said Å tÄ›tina. Borchashvili appealed the ministry’s negative decision in court. The Regional Court in Brno then cancelled the ministry department’s decision not to grant asylum to him as a result of which the ministry has to deal with the case again, Å tÄ›tina said.

The Senator emphasised that the extradition of Timur Borchashvili, an active participant in the Chechen resistance movement, to his homeland, would directly endanger his life by secret services and armed groups.

“The efforts by many people to save Borchashvili was crowned with success,” Å tÄ›tina said.