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10. Dialogue on the measures taken by the NPM
ensuring that every cell has a toilet. The head of Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest informed me that in 2016, the Ministry of the Interior
earmarked an amount of 323 million Forints for the refurbishment of the
Holding Facility. During the comprehensive refurbishment of the Holding
Facility, a new hot water network will be built, taps will be installed and
there will be toilets and washbasins in each cell. As a result of the remodelling effort, the exercise areas will also be modernised. The completion of the
refurbishment process is planned for the end of October 2018.
It happened that a detainee was not able to notify his relative after having been taken to the Holding Facility, so I requested the head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest to remedy this situation. In his response, he indicated that the notification of the relative was the responsibility
of the body acting in the case of the detainee in question. I did not accept
the response given by the head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of
Budapest, I maintained my recommendation.
The head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest did not
agree with my initiative, this is why he escalated it to the National Police
Headquarters.226 In his response, the deputy head of the National Police
Headquarters informed me that the acting policeman was not in the position to notify a relative or any other person at the site of the police action, neither was he in the position to fulfil the obligation of notification.
A policeman on duty in a public area has no such communication device
by which such notification could be given. The policeman acting on the
site has no information on whether the notification of the detainee’s relative jeopardises the effectiveness of the remaining part of the proceedings.
It may happen that the detainee notifies a person who can be accused of
committing a crime, whose calling to account would thus become more
difficult, or even impossible. I acknowledged the response given by the National Police Headquarters but I maintain my recommendation.
In order to ensure that clear information is provided to the detainees,
I requested the head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest to
ensure that a short and easy to understand information material is constantly
available to the detainees. In his response, the head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest indicated that the General Directorate of Law
Enforcement of the Hungarian National Police Headquarters would review
the admission information leaflet, which I criticised in my report, in 2018.
I requested the head of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters of Budapest to take measures for ensuring that only the healthcare personnel be
present at the medical examination of the detainees. As long as the presence of police staff is not essential in these cases, they should be waiting
226
See Section 32(3) of the Ombudsman Act.
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