May 25th, 2009

Ombudsman denounces police conduct at March 15 demonstrations

Police officers humiliated people detained in Budapest on March 15, civil rights ombudsman Máté Szabó informed MTI on Sunday after his staff conducted an inquiry into the arrests of protestors on Kossuth tér.

Measures taken against demonstrators on Kossuth tér were disproportionate, nor could it be established whether all those detained received the right to legal defence, Szabó revealed. The police action against a man who had been detained for chanting anti-cabinet slogans on Kossuth tér and was later ordered to undress in a police cell was not proportionate, the ombudsman said.

The inquiry also raised concerns over the state entrusting private security companies with securing local-authority events. These firms only meet contractual obligations and lack the basic evaluation principles of the police, Szabó asserted.

The ombudsman has turned to the PMO leader and the National Police chief on the matter.

Topics
Share
Comments
The All Hungary Media Group is firmly committed to freedom of expression and therefore applies a mostly "hands off" approach to comment moderation. Comments left by readers represent their own views and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of the staff, editors or owner of the All Hungary Media Group, who nonetheless reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic or which moderators consider to constitute "hate speech." Also note that in order to prevent spam we generally close entries off to comments several days after publication.

Comments are closed.