JUDGMENT OF 25. 7. 2018 –– CASE C-220/18 PPU GENERALSTAATSANWALTSCHAFT (CONDITIONS OF DETENTION IN HUNGARY) The dispute in the main proceedings and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling 19 On 2 August 2017, the Nyíregyházi Járásbíróság (District Court, Nyíregyházi, Hungary) issued a European arrest warrant against ML, a Hungarian national, so that he could be prosecuted and tried for offences of bodily harm, damage, fraud and burglary, committed in Nyíregyháza (Hungary) between February and July 2016. 20 On 16 August 2017, the Hungarian Ministry of Justice forwarded the European arrest warrant to the Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Bremen (Public Prosecutor’s Office, Bremen, Germany). 21 By judgment of 14 September 2017, the Nyíregyházi Járásbíróság (District Court, Nyíregyházi) sentenced ML in absentia to a custodial sentence of one year and eight months. 22 By letter of 20 September 2017, the Hungarian Ministry of Justice informed the Bremen Public Prosecutor’s Office, in response to a request sent by the latter, that, if ML were surrendered, he would initially be detained, for the duration of the surrender procedure, in Budapest prison (Hungary) and thereafter in Szombathely regional prison (Hungary). The Ministry also gave an assurance that ML would not be subjected to any inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter as a result of the proposed detention in Hungary. The Ministry added that that assurance could equally well be given in the event of ML being transferred to another prison. 23 On 31 October 2017, the Nyíregyházi Járásbíróság (District Court, Nyíregyházi) issued a further European arrest warrant in respect of ML, this time for the purpose of executing the custodial sentence imposed by that court on 14 September 2017. 24 On 23 November 2017, the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht in Bremen (Higher Regional Court, Bremen, Germany) ordered that ML be detained pending extradition for the purpose of executing the European arrest warrant issued on 2 August 2017. Since then, ML has been held in the prison of Bremen-Oslebshausen (Germany). 25 On 12 December 2017, the Amtsgericht Bremen (District Court, Bremen, Germany) made an order on the basis of the European arrest warrant issued on 31 October 2017 placing ML in detention whilst awaiting his possible surrender to the Hungarian authorities. ML did not consent to his surrender. 26 By order of 19 December 2017, the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht in Bremen (Higher Regional Court, Bremen) held that ML should continue to be detained pending extradition pursuant to that arrest warrant. However, in order to assess the legality of the surrender from the point of view of detention conditions in Hungarian prisons, that court considered it necessary to obtain additional information. 27 In its order of 9 January 2018, the Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht in Bremen (Higher Regional Court, Bremen) explained that, on the basis of the information available to it, ML’s detention in Szombathely prison did not present any difficulties. However, as the Hungarian Ministry of Justice had mentioned in its letter of 20 September 2017 that ML might be transferred to other detention centres, the court deemed it necessary to send the Ministry a request for information comprising a list of 78 questions concerning the conditions in which persons are detained in Budapest prison as well as in other detention centres to which ML might be transferred. 28 On 10 January 2018, the Bremen Public Prosecutor’s Office sent that request to the Hungarian Ministry of Justice. 29 On 12 January 2018, in response to that request, the Ministry stated that the national legislature, by Law No CX adopted on 25 October 2016 amending, inter alia, Paragraph 144/B, subparagraph 1, of Law No CCXL of 2013 on the execution of sentences and penalties, certain coercive measures and 6 ECLI:EU:C:2018:589