HHC position on the 4 July 2009 demonstration of the Hungarian Guard

On 4 July 2009, the Police dissolved a demonstration held by members of the Magyar Gárda and their sympathizers. The HHC issued a statement according to which the Police had committed a number of failures already in the course of noting and banning the demonstrations announced to be held on 4 July 2009. In the view of the HHC, the announced demonstration could not have been banned on the basis of the relevant legal provisions, and it is the task of the legislator to amend the law in an appropriate way. The HHC noted at the same time, that the demonstrators did not request the judicial review of the decision of the Police, which they would have been entitled to do. In the statement the HHC expressed its view that the Police had a lawful ground for dissolving the demonstration, since the participants of the demonstration committed petty offences and criminal offences and the demonstration infringed the rights and freedom of others. (The members of the dissolved Magyar Gárda were demonstrating after the court had delivered a final and binding decision proclaiming that the activity of the Magyar Gárda infringes the rights and freedom of others.) However, the HHC stated that the necessity and the proportionality of the police measures applied when dissolving the demonstration shall be assessed case by case.