Bahamas ? A Japanese amnesiac who was kept in a Bahamas prison and an immigration center for eight years without being charged was held unlawfully, a court has ruled.

Atain Takitota, 41, was awarded $500,000 “for the loss of eight years and two months” of his life, the Bahamas Court of Appeal ruled.

Atain said he went to a casino in Paradise Island shortly after he arrived in the Bahamas in August 1992 from Osaka, Japan. After he lost between $7,000 and $8,000 gambling, he realized that his luggage, which held his passport and the rest of his money, had been stolen.

Police arrested him that night, at first suspecting that he had tried to break into a vehicle and later believing he was a vagrant.

The only reason immigration authorities gave for his detention was that he was “an undesirable and his presence was not conducive to the public good,” the judges said.