Where assembly is a crime: charges brought against the organizer of Pécs Pride
This morning, the Pécs District Prosecutor’s Office informed Géza Buzás-Hábel, the organizer of last Fall’s Pécs Pride, that charges had been brought against him for organizing Pécs Pride. The prosecutor’s office has turned to the Pécs District Court for violation of the freedom of association and assembly, which could impose up to one year of imprisonment.
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Váltás magyarra
According to the human rights organizations representing and supporting Géza Buzás-Hábel, the prosecutor’s decision is another low point in the dismantling of the rule of law in Hungary. They continue to find it unacceptable that the activist is being threatened with imprisonment for peacefully standing up for the equal rights of sexual and gender minorities and for freedom of assembly. Amnesty International Hungary, Háttér Society, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union continue to fully support the organizer of Pécs Pride, whose case is now before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
“We were very much hoping that the Pécs prosecutor’s office would decide that organizing the biggest Pécs Pride ever could not be a criminal offense and would drop the case. We find it astonishing and outrageous that in 2026, a teacher and civil rights activist from Pécs has to go to court because he courageously and peacefully exercised his constitutional right and stood up for his values and opinions,” said dr. Zsolt Szekeres, Géza Buzás-Hábel’s defense attorney and lawyer for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
Géza Buzás-Hábel is a teacher and human rights activist in Pécs. He is gay, Roma and a respected member of the local human rights community. He has taught at a Roma secondary school, worked in a children’s home, and trained future teachers at the Eötvös József College. He is the co-founder and leader of the Diverse Youth Network, which organized previous Pécs Pride events. As a result of his cooperation with local authorities, Hungary’s only rural Pride parade had been held four times. Even after the 2025 amendment to the law on assembly, he did not back down and notified Pécs Pride to the police as an assembly last year. He did not seek cooperation with the local government similar to that in Budapest because – in his view – “the future of the community cannot depend on the attitude of a politician.”
Although the police banned the event and the Supreme Court approved the ban, under the motto “We will not bow to fear”, the 5th Pécs Pride took place last October, where more people than ever before peacefully protested against restrictions on the right of assembly and stood up for the equal rights of minorities, including the LMBTQI and Roma communities.