The Hungarian Ministry of Justice expresses its deep outrage at a remark made by European Union Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding connecting criticism of the Hungarian judiciary with the Tobin case.

EU Commissioner Reding suggested in an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that because of the ’questionable’ independence of the Hungarian judiciary it is understandable that Ireland had decided not to extradite Francis Ciaran Tobin, an Irishman who killed two children with his car in Hungary back in 2000.

Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics has on several occasions expressed his strong indignation on the Commissioner’s statement. In an open letter written to EU Commissioner Reding on Sunday, he said that such a mistaken parallel undermines the values and mutual trust that should be represented and safeguarded by the European Commission. Whereas Hungary appreciates the Commission as one of the most important institutions in Europe, the Minister asked Commissioner Reding to kindly refrain from making public statements that lack sufficient grounds as well as harbouring general malice.

While the Commissioner’s spokesperson Mina Andreeva recently said that her office had answered every letter in the Tobin case, the Ministry of Justice revealed today in a press release that neither the letter dated 13 November 2012 nor the one dated 26 November had been replied to so far, and the Ministry’s requests for informal consultations had also been ignored.

The father of the two deceased children also appealed to Commissioner Reding in a letter, asking her to pay more attention to the feelings of the family concerned in the case and, in compliance with what the EU Commissioner has sworn to when taking her office, promote judicial cooperation between the Member States of the European Union.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)