X v. HUNGARY

2025-12-18T00:00:00
  SECOND SECTION DECISION Application no. 3824/24 X against Hungary (see appended table) The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 18 December 2025 as a Committee composed of:  Stéphane Pisani, President,  Juha Lavapuro,  Hugh Mercer, judges, and Attila Teplán, Acting Deputy Section Registrar, Having regard to the above application lodged on 19 January 2024, Having regard to the decision not to have the applicant’s name disclosed, Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant, Having deliberated, decides as follows: FACTS AND PROCEDURE The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table. The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of criminal proceedings were communicated to the Hungarian Government (“the Government”). Complaints based on the same facts were also communicated under other provisions of the Convention. THE LAW Complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (excessive length of criminal proceedings)In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the protractedness of the proceedings. In particular, the Court notes that the domestic courts took into consideration the length of the prosecution as an important mitigating factor and specifically reduced the applicant’s sentence by ten months on this account. The grievance has thus been acknowledged and adequate redress has been afforded. The applicant can therefore no longer claim to be a victim of a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention; and this complaint must be declared incompatible ratione personae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. Remaining complaintsThe applicant also raised other complaints under Article 13 of the Convention regarding the length of the criminal proceedings. Given the above finding concerning Article 6 § 1, the Court considers that the applicant has no arguable claim of a violation of that provision and therefore the complaint under Article 13 is incompatible ratione materiae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. For these reasons, the Court, unanimously, Declares the application inadmissible. Done in English and notified in writing on 22 January 2026.    Attila Teplán Stéphane Pisani  Acting Deputy Registrar President       APPENDIX Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (excessive length of criminal proceedings) Application no. Date of introduction Applicant’s name Year of birth   Start of proceedings End of proceedings Total length Levels of jurisdiction Other complaints under well-established case-law 3824/24 19/01/2024 Anonymat X 1958   26/09/2016   11/11/2023   7 year(s) and 1 month(s) and 17 day(s) 3 level(s) of jurisdiction   Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in domestic law in respect of excessive length of criminal proceedings