Pre-trial detention case before the European Court of Human Rights

In July 2012 the HHC submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights in a case of a 50-year old truck driver with clear criminal record.

In 2011 the driver was assigned to carry some goods from a place to another by truck. The goods were transported and the route of the truck was registered as required by the law. However, the goods disappeared from the depot and the police started an investigation into case. In the document proving that the goods for handed over in the depot two characters of his name and one character of the number of his ID were recorded wrongly. After a one-year long investigation the HHC’s client was identified as suspect as the police assumed that it was an intentional act to provide false personal data on the mentioned document. When the police went to the place where the client had been living for 40 years with his old parents and ill brother, the client was abroad, therefore, he could not be taken to the police station for interrogation. The police then issued an arrest warrant on account of the fact that the suspect was fleeing. Upon his arrival back to Hungary the client immediately went to the police station, made a statement and handed over all the documentation he had in relation with the investigated case. Nevertheless, the prosecution initiated ordering his pre-trial detention which was ordered by the court. The appeal against this decision was rejected. The only reason of the decision was that the suspect was caught upon an arrest warrant and he was abroad, there the danger of his fleeing is well-founded. The facts – that the suspect voluntarily went to police and was abroad before because he was working there – were not taken into account by the court. The client was detained for months before he was released by the court.

As from the very first moment the detention was unlawful, the HHC decided to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.