Hungary, no surrender of the accused if there is a risk of rights violations

In view of the existence of systematic deficiencies in the prison systemHungarian prison system, the defendant, who is requested under a European Arrest Warrant, cannot be surrendered on the basis of generic information alone. The Court of Cassation, in its judgment 33397/2025, thus upheld the appeal of a Pakistani citizen, convicted of the crime of aiding illegal immigration and forgery.

The defendant had spent seven months in a Hungarian prison in pre-trial detention, during which he had claimed to have been tortured. He had then managed to 'escape' to Greece to Italy, where he had spontaneously presented himself at the police station in Bologna to start the asylum procedure, before being arrested in execution of the euromandate.

The Supreme Court annulled, with reference, the go-ahead for extradition ordered by the Court of Appeal, despite the fact that the Hungarian authorities' indications were limited to the prison where the applicant would serve his sentence. The sentence, among other things, on which there was no certainty as to its duration: two years according to the convicted person, compared to the maximum of twelve indicated by the MoA. On this point, the Supreme Court recalls that a "mismatch" on the timeframe is possible only in the case of a European arrest warrant, but not for the executive warrant, for which a specific indication of the size of the sentence is required.

I giudici di legittimità censurano la decisione della Corte d’Appello, adottata nonostante le riscontrate carenze del sistema penitenziario ungherese, evidenziate non solo dal consegnando, ma anche dal report del 2024 della Hungarian Helsinki Committe, tradotto in italiano da Antigone. Un quadro in linea con le violazioni rilevate dalla Corte europea dei diritti dell’Uomo con la sentenza pilota Varga e altri contro l’Ungheria. «La Corte territoriale, pur dando atto nella sua richiesta di informazioni delle condizioni psicologiche del ricorrente conseguite alla precedente carcerazione patita presso le carceri ungheresi - si legge nella sentenza - si è limitata a reputare sufficienti le informazioni fornite dalla Autorità penitenziaria ungherese, benché queste riguardino esclusivamente il trattamento detentivo applicato nell’istituto penitenziario di Szombathely». Per i giudici di legittimità, la Corte territoriale non aveva elementi per escludereCopyright reserved ©