European Parliament investigates case of ethnic Hungarian stripped of Slovak citizenship

Budapest, August 18 (MTI) – The European Parliament has launched a probe in connection with a Slovak decision to strip an elderly woman of her Slovakian citizenship on the ground she naturalised as a Hungarian, the head of civil group Human Dignity Council told MTI on Thursday.

Zoltán Lomnici noted that his group had filed its complaint concerning 104-year-old Ilonka Tamás and several other ethnic Hungarians a year ago. The complainants were deprived of their Slovak citizenship after having been granted Hungarian citizenship under a law passed in Budapest in 2010.

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Tamás was “stripped of all her rights” by the Slovakian authorities and her name erased from the register of residents. Further, her voting rights were revoked and her identity card was also withdrawn.

According to Lomnici, 1,000 Slovak nationals, including several dozen ethnic Hungarians, have now been stripped of their Slovak citizenship under that country’s citizenship law. The Slovak law, last amended in June 2010, after the Hungarian legislation was passed, strips Slovak nationals of their citizenship once they adopt that of another country.

In February last year, Tamás appealed to the European Court of Human Rights after the Slovak Constitutional Court turned down her appeal.

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Source: MTI