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Budapest Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Hungarian government bans three Ukrainian officials from Hungary
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the government has banned three Ukrainian officials from Hungary, saying they were responsible for forced conscription in Ukraine. He added that the ministry had earlier proposed that they be placed on a European Union sanctions list. The ministry cited Minister Szijjártó as commenting on the case of József Sebestyén, who had been recently beaten to death during forced conscription in Ukraine. Minister Szijjártó told a press conference after a meeting of a Hungarian-Uzbek mixed committee that the Council of Europe had confirmed reports of physical violence and torture during conscription in Ukraine. Minister Szijjártó said that since a Hungarian had fallen victim to this, the government on Wednesday proposed placing three persons on a sanctions list in Brussels. The officials in question are the chief of staff of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the commander of the Western Operational Command and the head of the mobilization Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. 'While this is being done, we arranged today that all three persons should be banned from Hungary,' he said. In response to a question, he said that freezing Hungary-Ukraine relations would bring great problems to Ukraine because Hungary was currently the largest electricity supplier of the neighbouring country, and several hundred million cubic metres of natural gas arrived in Ukraine from Hungary. Minister Szijjártó added that in such situations, the international public and liberal politicians often tried to find scapegoats. 'It was not we who took away the Ukrainian minority's rights in Hungary. It was not we who stopped oil transports last year. It is not in Hungary that Ukrainian temples are set to fire. And it was not a Ukrainian who died during conscription in Hungary'.
BreakingNews.ie
5 days ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Ireland had the 8th most overcrowded prisons in Europe last year
Ireland had the 8th most overcrowded prisons in Europe last year, according to a new report by an international human rights organisation. The annual report on penal statistics in prisons by the Council of Europe identified Ireland as one of 15 countries in Europe where prisons have more inmates than places available. Advertisement The Council of Europe – a leading human rights watchdog – has expressed concern at increasing overcrowding in prisons across the continent and claimed prison overcrowding remains a critical challenge in a third of European countries. Overall, the number of inmates per 100 places available increased from 93.5 in 2023 to 94.9 last year on average across Europe. The figures show Ireland had 105 prisoners for every 100 places available in 2024 which ranked it in joint 8th position with Sweden. The Council of Europe described the situation in Irish prisons as 'moderate overcrowding' which poses 'considerable challenges to daily prison management and service provision.' Advertisement It listed Ireland as one of 13 countries which experienced a significant increase in its prison population between January 2023 and January 2024. The figures show that the number of inmates in prisons in the Republic increased by 5.4% over the 12-month period and that Ireland's prison population has now grown by 17 per cent since 2005. Severe overcrowding in prisons was recorded in six countries – Slovenia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Romania and Belgium. The report revealed that there were over 1.02 million prisoners detained in prison in the 46 member states of the Council of Europe last year – representing a median prison population rate across Europe of 105 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants. Advertisement The incarceration rate in Ireland is 90 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. Compared to the rest of prisons in Europe, Ireland has a disproportionately high number of people imprisoned for assault and battery offences and sexual offences including rape but relatively few for robbery and drug offences. Approximately 21 per cent of prisoners in the Republic are in pre-trial detention compared to the European average of 28 per cent of prisoners who are not serving a final sentence. One of the authors of the report, Professor Marcelo Aebi, head of the SPACE research team from the University of Lausanne, remarked: 'Overcrowding seriously undermines the living conditions of the prison population and the rehabilitation efforts of the prison administrations.' Advertisement Prof Aebi said data highlighted the importance of sentence duration as a lever to manage prison overcrowding. 'In addition to promoting alternative sanctions to imprisonment, reducing sentence lengths, especially for non-violent and low-risk offenders, can be a powerful tool for lowering incarceration rates,' he added. The average age of prisoners in the Republic is 38 years – just above the European average of 37 years. The average length of imprisonment for prisoners in Ireland last year was 7.2 years compared to the European median of 8.7 years. Advertisement The report shows that staffing levels in Irish prisons are good with 1.2 prisoners per staff – below the median for Europe of 1.5 inmates per staff. However, Ireland was also classified as one of 20 countries with a high rate of prisoner escapes relative to the prison population. The figures show there were 12.4 prison escapes per 10,000 inmates in the Republic in 2023 – almost four times the European median of 3.5 escapes per 10,000 prisoners. The report shows that foreign nationals represent a substantial share of the prison population across Europe but their distribution is very uneven between countries. It reveals that 16% of prisoners in Ireland last year were non-citizens – the same figure as the median for Europe. Just over half of all non-Irish nationals (52 per cent) in prisons in the Republic are from other EU member states. The proportion of foreign nationals in prisons ranged from 94 per cent in Monaco to one per cent in Romania. The report also shows Ireland has a relatively large proportion of elderly prisoners with 3.7% of all inmates over 65 years – the 10th highest rate in Europe where the average is 3.1 per cent. The Council of Europe said a growing number of elderly prisoners was already placing pressure on prison infrastructure and healthcare budgets in a trend that was likely to intensify in the coming years 'Although the proportion of elderly inmates remains modest, the implications for prison management are substantial. Older prisoners often present complex health needs, including chronic illnesses, cognitive decline and reduced mobility,' the report noted. It added: 'Their presence raises operational challenges related to accessibility, staffing, and care standards, as well as ethical and legal questions about the continued detention of individuals who may no longer pose a significant threat to public safety.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
European envoy warns Trump administration actions are hurting efforts to help abducted Ukrainian children
ASPEN, Colorado — U.S. cuts to foreign assistance and Trump administration sanctions against the International Criminal Court are hurting the ability of groups to track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces during its war with Ukraine, a senior European official said Thursday. In an interview on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum, Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadóttir, an Icelandic politician who serves as an envoy of the Council of Europe overseeing its efforts to secure the return of abducted Ukrainian children, said that the end of U.S. financial support to programs tracking the children is making it harder to secure their release. The Trump administration cut funding to monitoring programs run by Yale University and other institutions in March as part of its freeze of U.S. foreign assistance spending. While the State Department later that month said it would resume short-term funding to the program, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reversed that announcement. Human rights groups warned at the time that this could seriously disrupt the work of groups tracking the whereabouts and wellbeing of the children. Reykfjord Gylfadóttir said she's now seeing evidence of that coming to pass, as the funding disruptions are adding uncertainty to these organizations' efforts. Some groups have managed to keep some tracking going. The Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health was preparing to lay off its Ukrainian staff on July 1, but last-minute private donations have granted the organization a lifeline until October. It's unclear if private donations will continue to trickle in. Reykfjord Gylfadóttir said Europe now needs to find ways to make up for lapsed funding, because understanding where children have been sent will be critical for repatriating them after the conflict ends. 'European countries will have to fund it,' said Reykfjord Gylfadóttir. 'We cannot stop tracking them and then just re-track them in the months ahead. So that has to continue.' She did not specify if there were any imminent plans for Europeans to foot the bill for the programs, but said she's working to find a way to marshal the funding to support these initiatives since they represent a hefty cost to Ukraine's allies. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Russian military has forcibly transported roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children into Russian territory. Human rights advocates have argued that Russia's actions constitute a war crime and that Moscow is looking to indoctrinate and brainwash the children. Russia has defended the transfers as humanitarian evacuations. U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court are also making the task of holding Russia to account for the abductions more difficult, Reykfjord Gylfadóttir added. 'People are afraid to work with fundamental independent courts to uphold the rules-based order and international law because they're afraid of consequences with the U.S. administration,' she said. Even though the United States is not a party to the Rome Statute treaty which created the International Criminal Court, Biden administration officials relayed information to the court, which has been investigating these abductions and other alleged Russian war crimes. The Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court in February in reaction to the international tribunal's investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Those sanctions also affect U.S. organizations supporting ICC investigations. U.S. government collaboration with the ICC's Russia probes stopped with the Trump administration's announcement. Reykfjord Gylfadóttir argued securing the release of the children is an important part of the process to secure a lasting end to the war in Ukraine. 'That is a non-negotiable fundamental piece of a just peace — that is to bring those children back,' Reykfjord Gylfadóttir said. Solve the daily Crossword
Budapest Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Budapest Times
FM: Government calls on EU to place 3 Ukrainian military leaders on sanctions list
Speaking in connection with the Hungarian-Ukrainian conscript who recently died, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the government has called on the European Union to place three Ukrainian military leaders responsible for forced conscription on the bloc's sanctions list. Minister Szijjártó said the Council of Europe had confirmed that 'a real manhunt' was taking place on the streets of Ukraine, and its human rights report said people evading conscription were 'sometimes beaten and tortured'. Referring to videos made public in recent months, he said it was 'horrifying' how Ukrainian army recruiters treated people, 'and it is equally horrifying how European political leaders turn a blind eye to this intolerable situation.' He added that those responsible 'must be found … [and] punished'. 'We demand that three people serving in the Ukrainian defence ministry and the army leadership who are responsible for forced conscription be held accountable,' Minister Szijjártó said.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Guernsey finance firms invited to MoneyVal follow-up events
Finance firms in Guernsey are being invited to a series of follow-up events following the result of a report by the anti-money laundering body inspectors visited Guernsey in April 2024 to look at how well the island tackled financial inspectors praised the progress made in Guernsey since the last inspection in 2015 but said more work was needed "to improve the investigation, prosecution and conviction of money laundering offences".The Guernsey Financial Services Commission, which oversees the finance industry, will run a series of sector-specific events in September to go through MoneyVal's findings and what they meant for firms. The States said the outcome meant the bailiwick was "one of the best, secure and safe jurisdictions in the world for financial services". All the sessions will be held at the commission's offices at Glategny Esplanade in St Peter Port, the commission free sessions are: Fiduciary (15 September), Investment (17 September), Banking (22 September), Insurance (23 September) and Prescribed Businesses (30 September).It said two spaces were available per company for the sessions, which all take place from 09:00 to 11:00. MoneyVal is part of the Council of Europe that evaluates finance centres, such as Guernsey, to make sure they have robust processes and rules in place to tackle financial island's recent MoneyVal assessment tested whether the bailiwick's laws and processes were tackling financial crime effectively, rather than whether financial crime was attempted or had taken was placed into regular follow-up, which is the standard monitoring process for jurisdictions MoneyVal believes may have room for improvement but have no major issues.
