Nuremberg Higher Regional Court: Inadequate Hungarian Prison Conditions?

According to an interim decision of the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court (OLG Nürnberg) dated 23 December 2019, in the future the transfer of convicted persons to Hungary for the purpose of serving their sentences may be made conditional upon specific assurances regarding the conditions of detention. In the underlying case, a Hungarian national detained in Germany opposed his transfer to Hungary. The prisoner’s legal representative argued that the transfer would violate public policy due to overcrowding in Hungarian correctional facilities and could therefore be refused. Within the European Union, transfers for the execution of criminal sentences between Member States are generally carried out without extensive review. Nevertheless, despite strong objections from the prosecution, the court senate acknowledged concerns regarding the conditions in Hungarian prisons. As a result, it held that extradition or transfer may in future depend on assurances provided by the Hungarian authorities concerning detention conditions. The court also instructed the prosecution to conduct specific research into the actual state of prison conditions in Hungary. Furthermore, according to the decision, German authorities must examine the specific detention conditions that the convicted person will face after transfer, based on the assurances given by the Hungarian authorities. The case is of particular importance because, within the European Union, prisoner transfers are normally highly depoliticized and largely automated procedures. As the court itself pointed out, mutual trust between Member States would be undermined if one Member State routinely questioned another state’s adherence to the rule of law. However, in this case, based on the arguments presented by our law firm, and notably because Hungary had not submitted certain reports on prison conditions to the Council of Europe, an exceptional substantive review of the situation in Hungary was considered necessary.