SECOND SECTION
CASE OF PÁPICS AND OTHERS v. HUNGARY
(Applications nos. 13727/20 and 15 others)
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
4 March 2025
 
 
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Pápics and Others v. Hungary,
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Anja Seibert-Fohr, President,
 Davor Derenčinović,
 Gediminas Sagatys, judges,
and Dorothee von Arnim, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the applications against Hungary lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by the applicants listed in the appended table (“the applicants”), on the various dates indicated therein;
the decision to give notice of the complaint concerning Article 3 of the Convention in application no. 49294/20 and of all remaining applications to the Hungarian Government (“the Government”) represented by their Agent, Mr Z. Tallódi, of the Ministry of Justice, and to declare the remainder of application no. 49249/20 inadmissible;
the parties’ observations;
the withdrawal of Mr P. Paczolay, the judge elected in respect of Hungary, from sitting in the case (Rule 28 § 3 of the Rules of Court);
Having deliberated in private on 4 February 2025,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The cases concern the applicants’ conviction to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on parole and the fact that their mandatory pardon proceedings can take place only after they had served forty years of their life sentences. They complained that their sentences constituted inhuman and degrading punishment, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention. 2. The details regarding each applicant’s impugned final conviction to life imprisonment without release on parole are set out in the appendix.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 3
Outcome: violation