The European Court of Human Rights ruled against Italy on Tuesday for deporting a Tunisian to his home country despite being told not to by the court and ignoring the risk that he could face torture.

Essid ben Khemais served a five-year prison sentence in Italy for membership of a criminal organisation, and was later found guilty in 2006 of assault and ordered to be deported at the end of his second jail sentence.

He filed an appeal to the Strasbourg-based rights court two years ago, after which the court told Italy it should not deport him, pending the court's verdict.

Despite the court's instructions, Italy deported ben Khemais to Tunisia, where a military court had sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for membership of a terrorist group.

Italy said it had deported him because of his involvement in the activities of "Islamic extremists".

A Milan court found that "he represented a threat to national security because he was in a position to renew contacts with a view to resuming terrorist activities, including on an international scale", the ECHR said.

Italy also presented what it said were "diplomatic assurances" from Tunisia that he would not be tortured.

The European court said in a statement those assurances were not acceptable and Italy had in any case only received them after the Tunisian had been deported.

"The court noted that the Italian government ... had proceeded to deport him without even obtaining the diplomatic assurances they had referred to in their observations," the court said.

Ben Khemais, who is in prison in Tunisia, was awarded 10,000 euros ($12,810) in damages and 5,000 euros in costs.