“Freedom won: the prosecutor’s office dropped the charges for organizing Pride in Budapest and Pécs” – he issued a statement with this title four NGOsAmnesty International Hungary, Háttér Társaság, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and TASZ. They reacted to the fact that it was revealed on Thursday that, according to the European Court of Justice’s decision, the so-called child protection violates EU law, the aimed at banning Pride law, they dropped the charge a Organizer of Pécs Pride Géza Buzás-Hábel and the organizer of Budapest Pride Mayor Gergely Karácsony also against.
The NGOs that issued the statement wrote that, starting in 2025, they worked together to restore the free exercise of the right to assembly. “We are extremely happy that the courage of the Pride organizers and the open stance of the hundreds of thousands of participants has paid off, and that the prosecution is not pursuing criminal proceedings that violate EU law and fundamental rights.” However, they noted: the legislators have the task of amending the assembly law and the provisions of the basic law that severely limit rights.
According to the statement, the rights defenders managed to bring the decisions and judgments of the police and the Court to the court in Strasbourg by announcing the meetings and suing the bans. The lawyers of the civil organizations helped to prepare the volunteers of the Prides, prepared legal observers so that, if necessary, they could provide legal assistance to the organizers at both parades.
“The current indictments justify the work and perseverance of all those who believed that assembly is a fundamental right and did not let the arbitrariness of the previous government deprive us of this right and freedom.” At the same time, according to them, the indictments do not put an end to “the end of the period burdened by systemic law violations”, the assembly law should be amended.
