In contrast to DK MP Ágnes Vadai’s claim, the Hungarian government will not release a single convicted criminal before the minimum prison sentence imposed in final and absolute court judgements, Justice Minister Judit Varga told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday.
She added that, on the contrary, as they have already announced, they are working on tightening the rules regarding conditional release in the case of crimes against life.
She said “Ágnes Vadai living under Ferenc Gyurcsány’s spell did nothing unusual today, nothing that we’re not already used to. With the thoroughly tested DK methods, she launched a tsunami of lies wrapped into questions and sought to upset the Hungarian people with unfounded rumours.”
According to the Minister, “Ágnes Vadai merely follows her own logic as when she was minister of state in the Gyurcsány Government, repeat offenders were marching in the street”. By contrast, the Orbán Government tightened the rules of the Penal Code, and introduced the concept of the three-strikes law, in consequence of which the number of serious crimes has fallen by half. It was also in consequence of these tightened rules that while “during Gyurcsány and Vadai’s reign” 14,000 convicted criminals were in prison, today this number is almost 17,000.
“For us action comes first, words only second,” Mrs Varga stated.
At a press conference, Ágnes Vadai, Vice President of Parliament’s Defence and Law Enforcement Committee said they are concerned that the government might release thousands of criminals.