Did you know that from now on in Hungary you can be put in jail because of a threatening message?

If you write in a message that you will kill somebody or you send a video about such an intention, the punishment can be 1-5 years in prison.

Based on a new decision of the Curia (Supreme Court) of Hungary, one committing such a crime can be sentenced

to 1-5 years in prison

regardless of whether they would like to commit the crime or somebody else who just entrusted them to send the message – Magyar Nemzet reported. The Curia had to decide on the issue because there was no uniform protocol for the courts to follow. 

For example, some judges sentenced perpetrators to prison only if they were entrusted by a third party to send threatening messages or videos. Thus, only so to say contract killers were convicted in such situations. Meanwhile, other judges sentenced even those people to prison who sent a message or a video about their intention. Based on the decision of the Curia,

the Hungarian courts have to follow the latter and stricter process. 

Furthermore, it will not count from now on whether the perpetrator was young or old. In Hungary, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is, in general, 14, but in such severe crimes like murder, it is lower, only 12. However, in the cases of very young people, the courts have to examine whether the perpetrator understood the consequences of his deed.

Department leader of the National Institute of Criminology, Tibor László Nagy, said that the Curia’s decision is right and useful since it not only

gives a clear protocol

the judges can follow, but also shows that the Hungarian jurisdiction system stands on the side of the victims. He added that a better children protection system is needed because most of the time children send threatening messages and horrific videos to each other. Of course, a proper investigation is inevitable in such cases since in the background; there can be a lot of social, pedagogical or psychological problems.

Mr Nagy said that there are four phases in any voluntarily committed crimes. The first one is the thought that is not punishable. The second is the preparation: buying the murder weapon, choosing the venue or sending the threatening message or video. The punishment is 1-5 years in prison. The criminologist added that there were

162 murders in Hungary in 2018

8 of which was only in the preparation phase.

Based on surveys, threatening messages are widespread among elementary school students and rare in secondary schools. Furthermore, 24 pc of the students already experienced some kind of aggression. According to research conducted in Szeged, physical assault is more common among boys, while girls mostly harm each other by using indirect methods.

Source: Magyar Nemzet