Convicts who have served at least 40 years of their life sentence may be pardoned if Parliament passes a relevant bill tendered by the Government.
Under the bill, a Pardon Committee would be set up of judges, which would automatically start the pardon procedure in each case once the convict has spent the first 40 years behind bars, Minister of Justice László Trócsányi said in his introduction to the bill on 28 October 2014.
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At the committee’s proposal, the President of the Republic will decide whether to pardon the convict in question. In case of the president’s rejection, the procedure will be repeated every two years, the Minister said.
The bill aims at bringing legislation in line with the requirement of the European Court of Human Rights. The number of convicts with real life sentence in Hungary is under 40, the Minister added.
(Ministry of Justice)
