The Government has successfully defended the most severe punishment in the Hungarian legal system, the actual life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and will make every effort also in the future to retain this form of punishment, Róbert Répássy, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice said at his press conference held on Sunday in Budapest.
The Minister of State said that the number of individuals sentenced to life imprisonment on a final and absolute basis increased to 41 in July, and the sentences of another seven persons are not yet final and absolute. Consequently, the courts in Hungary have sentenced 48 people in total to actual life imprisonment.
Based on the fact that the number of individuals sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has further increased, it is possible to conclude that the Government has successfully defended the most severe punishment in the Hungarian legal system, despite the fact that European institutions have continuously attacked Hungary due to the actual life sentence without the possibility of parole ever since 2011, the Minister of State said.
Mr Répássy reiterated: the actual life sentence has existed since 1999, rather than in just the last 4 years during which European criticisms have intensified. In addition to Hungary, this sentence may be handed down in a number of other European countries, he said, mentioning the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Switzerland.
He added: all of the individuals sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole have been given this sentence by the courts due to homicide; 25 of them due to multiple homicides, 6 of them murdered children, 5 of them were sentenced to life imprisonment due to heinous homicides, while the rest of them committed homicides falling into other categories.
We may conclude in the light of the data that each of the individuals sentenced to actual life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is a cold-blooded and cruel murderer. When the Government provides for the most severe punishment which may be imposed in the Hungarian legal system, this is the premise that it adopts. If European and Hungarian law did not exclude the application of the death sentence, these perpetrators would no doubt have been sentenced to death, the Minister of State said.
He reiterated: the Curia’s legal unity decision promulgated on 1 July has confirmed that the former decisions of the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights do not give rise to changing the judicial practice in Hungary regarding the imposition of the actual life sentence, and that there is no international convention that prohibits the exclusion of those sentenced to life imprisonment from being conditionally released.
The Curia adopted its legal unity decision after one of the councils of the Curia dispensed with the provision relating to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on 11 June in the case of László Magyar due to an earlier decision of the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights. At the same time, the council ordered that the man’s conditional release may be considered within 40 years, at the earliest.
Mr Répássy told the press, however, that after the judgement adopted in the Magyar Case, the Szeged Court of Appeal sentenced two men who tortured a woman to death in Battonya to actual life imprisonment; i.e. they imposed this sentence without concern. As the Minister of State said, the Curia „swiftly realised that some uncertainty may have set in in the courts regarding the actual life sentence”; however, the legal unity decision has done away with this uncertainty.
There will always be convicts who take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights; they have the right to do so, and the Government is prepared for this. However, the Government will defend the life sentence without the possibility of parole, and will not allow brutal murderers to be released into society, the Minister of State said.
Mr Répássy remarked: the number of homicides has fallen to one half in the past 15 years, since the introduction of the actual life sentence. The number of homicides committed annually was almost 300 at the end of the nineties; it is today below 150.
He said: the courts have sentenced more than 250 individuals to life imprisonment in total, but in these cases, the courts have authorised the conditional release of the convicts.
Mr Répássy further pointed out that Parliament has amended the rules relating to penal enforcement and clemency, and has introduced a mandatory clemency review upon the passage of 40 years. He reiterated: this does not mean that the convict may be released; the council comprised of judges merely investigates whether the convict is worthy of clemency. In a specific case, clemency may involve the cancellation of the provision which excludes conditional release, and the investigation at a later date of the possibility of conditional release, he explained.
The Minister of State stressed: the Government has faith in the wisdom of the independent institutions, the President of the Republic and the courts that – while they have the theoretical possibility – „they will never release murderers who have killed children, elderly, vulnerable people, and innocent victims”.
(Ministry of Justice)
