Prosecutor General Dr. Péter Polt has submitted to Parliament the annual report about the activities of the Prosecution Service of Hungary last year.
The Prosecutor General pointed out that in the past year the Hungarian Prosecution Service had to face the serious – mainly economic – consequences of the war in the neighbouring country. He also underlined that the development of technology, information technology and communication has a substantial impact on the trends in crime, and thus on the administration of justice, as well. In order to fulfil effectively its constitutional role, the Prosecution Service must constantly adapt to these changes. The data in the report show that the organisation has successfully managed this task.
Dr. Péter Polt stressed that in 2022 the organisation achieved its best result in the last ten years – 98.9% – in terms of the efficiency rate of indictments. Even more significant is the fact that in the case of 87.4% of the accused, the courts ruled in line with the prosecutorial indictment in all respects.
In 2022, the Prosecution Service – making use of the legal provisions to speed up the proceedings – filed a motion for penal order in 70.3% of the indictments, and the court's decisions became final in 83.4% of such cases, without the parties requesting a trial. This shows that, even after the pandemic has passed, this legal instrument is still an effective tool to conclude proceedings swiftly and in accordance with the rule of law.
The Prosecution Service may file a motion for the term or duration of the punishment or penal measure in case the accused confesses to the commission of the crime during the preliminary session and waives his or her right to a trial. The statistics continue to show the success of prosecutorial work and the legal instrument, as last year the court accepted more than 10,000 confessions from defendants, significantly reducing the length of the court phase of criminal proceedings.
The report notes that the decline in the number of recorded crimes has stopped, with an increase of 8.9% in 2022, compared to the previous year. For the work of the Prosecution Service, it will be crucial to see how the trend will continue and which types of offences will be affected in the future.
The number of crimes called breach of information system or data continued to rise in the past year, and the way fraud is committed is increasingly linked to IT tools. Crimes against the environment and nature, money laundering also continued their upward trend.
The Prosecutor General also made a special reference to the issue of corruption, pointing out that the Prosecution Service prevents criminal behaviour primarily by ensuring the prosecution of those who have already committed crimes.
The number of corruption offences recorded in initiated criminal procedures continued to increase in 2022, with the main factor continuing to be the rise in economic bribery. The health sector continues to account for a significant share of economic corruption cases. The increase in administrative corruption offences is not considered to be significant.
Overall, crime statistics show that the corruption situation in Hungary is relatively stable on a multi-year average.
Dr. Péter Polt also reported a successful year regarding the international activities of the Prosecution Service. Among the programmes, the annual meeting of the Network of Prosecutors General operating at the Supreme Courts of the Member States of the European Union, organised by the Austrian Prosecutor General's Office in Vienna in May 2022, was a highlight. Speaking at the event, European Public Prosecutor Laura Codruta Kövesi cited the Hungarian Prosecution Service as a positive example of the working relationship between the European Public Prosecutor's Office and the prosecutors' offices of non-participating Member States, underlining that Hungary is diligent in responding to all requests received.
The data in the report show that the Prosecution Service has both the capacity and the will to carry out its statutory tasks in a professional and efficient manner. The Prosecutor General thanked his colleagues for their effective work over the past year.
The English extract of the Parliamentary Report can be found here: https://ugyeszseg.hu/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/angol-nyelvu-kiadvanyszerkesztett-kivonat.pdf