The hasty extradition of a left-wing German activist to Hungary was unlawful, Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled in a decision released on Thursday, citing harsh jail conditions in Hungary among other reasons.
The ruling, however, comes too late to help the complainant in the case, who was handed over by German authorities to Hungary in June 2024. An initial injunction from the appeals court at the time that sought to halt the extradition came barely an hour too late.
The person in question is a suspect in a series of brutal attacks on neo-Nazis and other alleged far-right extremists in Budapest in February 2023.
The case concerns a person born in Jena who identifies as non-binary and is known in the left-wing scene as “Maja.” The person’s lawyer has criticizes jail condition in Hungary, where “Maja” is being held in solitary confinement.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the extradition violated “Maja’s” fundamental rights.
“Maja’s” attorney called the decision “a great success” in purely legal terms, but said it will do nothing to help his client, who remains in an isolation cell. He expressed hoped that the Hungarian authorities will now at least grant relief from detention.
A trial is due to begin on February 21 in Budapest. The lawyer said that Hungarian prosecutors had offered a 14-year prison sentence in exchange for an immediate guilty plea, and warned that a trial to could drag on for years.
If convicted, “Maja” could face up to 24 years in prison, a much harsher sentence than is possible in Germany. Hungary has already promised that “Maja” would be transferred back to Germany to serve any prison sentence in their home country.
The Berlin Court of Appeal, which had declared the transfer to Hungary permissible, had not sufficiently examined the conditions of detention that awaited the person in Hungary, according to the Constitutional Court’s decision.
Other suspected left-wing extremists from Germany are also being investigated in connection with the attacks in Budapest, which took place during an annual gathering by far-right extremists to mark a failed effort by Nazi German and fascist Hungarian troops to fight their way through Soviet Red Army lines during World War II.
The German suspects had been in hiding for more than a year as lawyers tried to get assurances that they would not be sent to Hungary to face trial.
In January, seven of the suspects turned themselves in to the German authorities. According to a statement by their lawyers, this was done “voluntarily, despite the threat of extradition” in order to defend themselves against the charges.
Leipzig-based lawyer Giulia Borsalino, who is among the lawyers representing the suspects, said the others are still being held exclusively on German – and not Hungarian – arrest warrants.
“However, as there are also Hungarian arrest warrants, this will have to be dealt with at some point,” she said, but added that the new high court decision would likely have an impact on any pending extradition proceedings.
