Coercive interrogation in a timber theft case
Zsolt Csonka was taken to Sellye police station for questioning as witness in relation to timber theft in February 2013. According to the police record, he waived his right to counsel at the beginning of the questioning, and then immediately admitted his involvement in the offence and disclosed the identity of his accomplices.
Magyar Helsinki Bizottság v. Hungary
The Hungarian authorities’ refusal to provide the HHC with information relating to ex officio defence counsels was in breach of the right of access to information
Unjustified pre-trial detention: Bandur v. Hungary
In its judgment of 5 July 2016, the European Court of Human Rights established that the pre-trial detention of the HHC's client, Mr. Bandur, violated the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2012 the HHC submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the pre-trial detention case of Mr. Bandur, a then 50-year old truck driver with a clean criminal record and a registered job. In 2011 Mr.
Compensation for police ill-treatment
In 2011, a police officer halted the car of a man in the outskirts of the city of Tatabánya. After getting into an oral dispute (the HHC’s future client refused to hand over his ID card along with his driver’s licence, claiming that the latter already proved his identity), the police officer dragged him out of his car, pushed him onto the trunk of his vehicle, handcuffed him so tightly that caused him injuries and arrested him.
Compensation for inadequate placement and rape suffered in prison
The HHC’s client, a young man, was placed in pre-trial detention in November 2007. In March 2008, he was transferred to the Bács-Kiskun County Penitentiary Institution for five days, where he was placed in a cell with nine other inmates, eight of whom being already convicted inmates, even though the law says that pre-trial detainees cannot be placed in the same cell with convicts.
Pilot judgment on prison overcrowding
In its judgment issued today, the European Court of Human Rights set out that Hungary should produce within six months a plan for reducing overcrowding in its penitentiaries. The judgment concluded that the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment was violated with regard to the applicants detained in overcrowded cells, three of them being the clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
Baksza v. Hungary
The European Court of Human Rights ruled again in a Hungarian pre-trial detention case on 23 April 2013 that Hungary had violated Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant was represented by the HHC.
A. B. v. Hungary
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in a Hungarian pre-trial detention case on 16 April 2013 that Hungary had violated Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant was represented by the HHC.
Practice of racial profiling against the Roma community is acknowledged by the Police
The notary of the village Rimóc (Northern Hungary) noticed that petty offence fines for lack of mandatory accessories for bicycles (ring, headlights, reflector prisms) are almost exclusively imposed on Roma people in the area, although the bicycles used by the non-Roma are not significantly better equipped. He notified the Authority and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC).
Ferencné Kovács v. Hungary
In March 2009, the Tatabánya City Court ordered the pre-trial detention of Mrs Ferenc Kovács, an ill, 83 year-old lady in her absence in the course of a criminal investigation that had been ongoing for almost eight years.
