Hungary's PM calls Strasbourg court ruling outrageous

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday called a ruling issues by the European Court of Human Rights against Hungary "outrageous".

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled against Hungary on Tuesday in a non-final decision involving a case of life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. In the case of Laszlo Magyar from Hungary, convicted for homicide and robbery, the Strasbourg court ruled that his life sentence without parole and the conditions of his detention were degrading and therefore violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

According to Hungarian News Agency MTI, the prime minister who participated in a campaign event related to European elections in Kormend, a town in Western Hungary, said the Strasbourg court's decision was another proof that in Brussels and Strasbourg "the rights of those who have committed a crime are placed before the rights of innocent people and the victims."

Orban said he firmly rejected the decision on behalf of the government. Life imprisonment should be defended as an institution since it has a strong deterrent effect on crime offenders or people who wish to do so, he added.

The ruling Fidesz party said in a statement that it continued to insist on the life sentence without parole, adding that anyone who takes another's life must stay in prison indefinitely.

Between November 2001 and July 2002, Magyar and his accomplices invaded homes and rubbed elderly people many times. Two old women died after their assaults. Hungary's Debrecen Regional Court of Appeal gave life sentence to Magyar without parole in December 2009.