5.  The applicant was born in 1953 and lives in the village of Patiltė (Utena Region).
6.  On 20 November 2006 the applicant began serving a prison sentence at the Marijampolė Correctional Facility. The prison regulations were explained to him, which included a prohibition on prisoners growing beards (see paragraph 17 below). The applicant signed to confirm that he had read and understood the rules.
7.  On 4 October 2007 the applicant submitted a request to the Prison Department to allow him to grow a beard for health reasons. He stated that he had been diagnosed with tongue cancer and had undergone radiation treatment, and therefore shaving irritated his skin.
8.  On 17 October 2007 the applicant was examined by the correctional facility’s medical personnel. The subsequent medical report stated that no traces of irritation had been found on the applicant’s skin and that, according to the applicant himself, the main reason why he wanted to grow a beard was that his electric razor was almost broken and he could not afford to buy a new one. On 23 October 2007 the Prison Department denied the applicant’s request, based on the results of the examination.
9.  The applicant later submitted another request to grow a beard to the Prison Department, and on 19 November 2007 it was denied on the same grounds.
10.  On 5 December 2007 the applicant submitted a complaint to the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court. He argued that there was no law prohibiting beards in prison, so the Marijampolė Correctional Facility did not have the right to establish such a prohibition in its internal regulations. He also contended that the prohibition, which had been applied to him regardless of his health problems, had caused him great mental suffering and had breached his rights.
11.  On 21 April 2008 the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court upheld the applicant’s complaint. The court acknowledged that prisons were in principle justified in having rules on prisoners’ beards in so far as it was necessary for hygiene-related reasons. However, it dismissed the Prison Department’s argument that the prohibition on beards was necessary for the purpose of the swift identification of prisoners, and held that such a restriction was contrary to the requirement to reintegrate prisoners into society. Accordingly, the court concluded that the prohibition on the applicant having a beard was against the law and was neither necessary nor proportionate.
12.  However, on 24 March 2009 the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the first-instance judgment. Firstly, the court noted that the applicant had not proven that he had been unable to shave regularly because of health reasons (see paragraph 8 above). The court also noted that although prisoners’ human rights and fundamental freedoms could only be restricted by laws and not by legal acts of a lower order, the desire to grow a beard could not be considered as such a right or freedom. Therefore, unless it was related to other rights, such as, for example, religious freedom, the growing of a beard could be restricted by internal prison rules. Lastly, the Supreme Administrative Court considered that a prohibition on growing beards could be justified by the prison authorities’ need to swiftly identify prisoners, and thus it was necessary and proportionate.
13.  On 15 December 2009 the applicant was released from the Marijampolė Correctional Facility on probation.