Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Administration and Justice Tibor Navracsics spoke about the latest developments of the case of Irish citizen Francis Ciarán Tobin, who killed two Hungarian children in a road accident 12 years ago, on a morning television show.

The Minister said he would under any circumstances like to consult with the Irish Justice Minister on the case because he believes that the position taken by the Irish minister is indefensible from a moral point of view.

Hungary is attempting to exert pressure on the administration of justice in Ireland in the case through the legal rules of the EU. At Navracsics’s initiative, the experts of the Hungarian and Irish justice ministries had a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday organised by Viviane Reding, the European Commission’s justice chief. Navracsics would like to ensure that someone who killed two small children in a road accident should not be left unpunished, and should not be allowed to avoid taking responsibility for his actions in his own country either. Therefore, the Minister recently requested Viviane Reding in a letter to induce the Irish to be more constructive both on regulatory issues and in the specific case.

Francis Ciarán Tobin, who worked in Hungary for three years, killed a five-year-old and a two-year-old child in a road accident in Hungary on 9 April 2000. The children died on the spot. The investigation established that the driver responsible for the accident started overtaking at high speed, lost control of the vehicle in the interim, mounted the pavement and hit the two children, the smaller of whom was in a pram. Tobin left Hungary in November 2000 at the end of his business mission in Hungary. He was sentenced to three years in prison two years later in his absence. The Supreme Court of Ireland, however, refused the man’s extradition to Hungary on 19 June this year. In a previous exchange of messages, Mrs Reding indicated that she would like the authorities concerned to discuss together with the Commission what caused the “apparent malfunctioning” of the European Arrest Warrant in the case of the Irish driver causing the deaths of two children.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)