Hungary ordered to pay compensation to Pakistani asylum seeker severely beaten by Hungarian police

According to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, the Hungarian state must pay compensation to a Pakistani asylum seeker who was beaten up by Hungarian police at the country's border fence in 2016, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said in a statement on Thursday.

Khurram Shahzad, who was 30 years old at the time, was forced back to Serbia by Hungarian police on 12 August 2016, along with several other people. In the process, they were "repeatedly kicked and beaten with metal and rubber batons", the rights organisation writes. This is supported by several pieces of evidence:

• A video, recorded by the police themselves, which emerged after Khurram Shahzad's complaint. The video, taken before the assault, shows exactly what the victim had described.
• A photo was taken of Khurram Shahzad shortly after the assault, showing his head covered in blood.
• The hospital in the Serbian town of Subotica prepared a medical report on his condition, documenting – among others – two head injuries that required stitches.
• Additionally, Shahzad also managed to remember the exact five-digit identification number of one of the policemen involved.

The Hungarian investigating prosecutor's office closed the investigation despite the available evidence. The Strasbourg court found this to be unlawful.

Under a 2003 judgment, not only is torture itself a violation of human rights, but so is the failure of the state to investigate possible cases of torture and ill-treatment and to find those responsible.

In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights also made it clear that if a person is taken into police custody in good health and unharmed, but is found to be injured upon release, then it is the state's responsibility to prove that the abuse did not take place in the way described by the victim.

The Strasbourg Court's ruling states that there was no effective investigation into the assault on Shahzad and that the state failed to provide an acceptable explanation for his injuries.

The European Court of Human Rights also concluded that the man was abused by Hungarian police officers.

According to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, it is rare for the Strasbourg Court to rule on the fact of abuse having occured. In practice, the state is usually only condemned for inadequate investigation.

The Hungarian state has now been ordered to pay a compensation of €20,000 (HUF 7.7 million) to the victim.

Khurram Shahzad was one of the first people to be automatically forced back to Serbia from the Hungarian border in 2016, under a law that had been passed shortly before. The Pakistani asylum seeker also turned to the European Court of Human Rights on this matter with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. In the summer of 2021, the Strasbourg Court ruled that the Hungarian state violated the prohibition of collective expulsion by automatically forcing people into Serbia without any opportunity for a legal procedure or any possibility for appeal.