Ombudsman urges possibility of legal remedy

Press release

Ombudsman urges possibility of legal remedy

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights says that there is no effective legal remedy concerning the secret information gathering proceedings conducted by the Counter Terrorism Centre; therefore he requested Sándor Pintér, Minister of the Interior, to initiate an amendment of the Act on National Security Services.  

According to Ombudsman Máté Szabó, pursuant to a recommendation of the Council of Europe, it should be ensured that citizens be able to consult information gathered and stored by the services about them, unless this may prejudice national security interests as determined by exactly circumscribed criteria laid down in an Act. In the opinion of Máté Szabó the rule of law should be enforced also in the operation of secret services, and, consequently, with adequate regulation the possibilities for arbitrary application of the law should be minimised.

According to the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights it would be expedient to determine in a normative manner the criteria on the basis of which one could decide whether the given circumstances justify the proceedings of the services, since in the absence of such criteria the right to legal remedy is infringed.