Topic: Justice

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 … Read more

On 23 June 2009, the HHC, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, the Chance for Children Foundation and the Legal Defense Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities filed a criminal report against T. P., a well-known … Read more

In a lawsuit filed by the Helsinki Committee, the Metropolitan Appellate Court pronounced on 18 June 2009 that contracts with winners of tenders called for by government bodies are public information, as are documents containing … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee finds that the 16 June 2009 ruling of the Pécs Appellate Court is unacceptable, as it reduced the suspended imprisonment imposed in the first instance on police officers from Csurgó, who … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s STEPSS (Strategies for Effective Police Stop and Search) project was aimed at assessing the practice of ID checks and monitor ethnic profiling while improving the relations of the police and the Roma … Read more

An ill, 83 year-old lady, whose pre-trial detention was ordered in her absence by the Tatabánya Municipal Court in a criminal investigation that has been ongoing for almost eight years has been held at the … Read more

In late 2008 and early 2009 the HHC carried out research into possible ways of assessing the quality of ex officio defense through studying actual case files. In the research, 150 already closed criminal cases … Read more

Hungarian Rights Groups Denounce Anti-Romani Statements by Hungary’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights On 2 April 2009, Dr Máté Szabó, Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights, stated in an interview with the online news portal FigyelőNet, … Read more

Lifelong imprisonment without the possibility of parole was introduced in 1999 into Hungarian criminal law. In the EU at present Hungary and the United Kingdom are the only Member States that allow imposing a so-called “actual life … Read more

The HHC, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the Legal Defense Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities, the Roma Civil Rights Foundation and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union addressed President László Sólyom in a joint letter. The … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee opposes the proposed amendments of the Hungarian Criminal Code, introducing the idea of “three strikes” into the Hungarian criminal law system. The HHC claims that the proposal infringes the constitutional principle that criminal sanctions … Read more

In June 2008 the HHC sent a public interest information request to all Budapest-based police stations to find out in how many cases the police had appointed ex officio defense counsels in mandatory defense cases … Read more

Lifelong imprisonment without the possibility of parole was introduced in 1999 into Hungarian criminal law. In the EU at present Hungary and the United Kingdom are the only Member States that allow imposing a so-called “actual life … Read more

On 30 January 2009, Albert Pásztor, head of the Miskolc Police Headquarters held a press conference concerning robberies committed in the city of Miskolc. After the press conference, where he mentioned that all the robberies … Read more

This project, carried out in 2009, was aimed at decreasing racism among police officers and contributing to the development of an organizational culture of tolerance within the Hungarian police force. In order to achieve this … Read more

In June 2008 the HHC sent a public interest information request to all Budapest-based police stations to find out in how many cases the police had appointed ex officio defense counsels in mandatory defense cases … Read more