1987. április (33-52. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

This practice is unlawful nőt only because it inflicts punishment on the applicant fór the action of somebody else, bút alsó because "refusing to return horae" ceased to be a criminal act in the meantirae, consequently the punishment is inflicted on the kinship of a person having committed no crime.

5. The 1956 convicts' freedom to travel is uncertain even today. Passports are denied to many of them on the usual grounds of endangering the public order, while to others because they have a criminal record even after thirty years. Kxemption, namely, can only be claimed by those, who had been sentenced fór a definite length of imprisonment (and even they may nőt have the guts to apply fór this); convicts sentenced fór life or reprieved after being sentenced to death cannot ever have the exemption. Among others Mr Gyula Obersovszky, ex-editor of the 1956 revolutionary newspaper "Igazság"

(The Truth) didn't ever have the opportunity to travel abroad; the passport was denied to Mr Sándor Rácz, ex-chairman of the Greater Budapest Central Workers* Council; in the aftermath of his brother's suffering a tragic accident, Mr György Krassó récéived a passport to the West fór the first time in his life, and even that was due to the intervention of foreign organizations.

6. Besides the aboveifnentioned well-known restrictions, the statutes of the Council of Ministers and that of the Ministry of Interior in connection with the Passport Act 1978 (decree of the Council of Ministers No.53/1978/XI.10/MT and decree of the Ministry of Interior No.6/1978/XI.10/BM), alsó introduced another restriction. This restriction went strangely unnoticed in the shadow of the "liberal" skeleton law. According to paragraph 2 of the decree of the Ministry of Interior quoted above, “passports fór the under-aged can only be claimed (with the exception of a conducted tour or a joumey to visit a relative) fór travelling in the company of a parent or a legitimate represen- tative". The decree thus deprived persons under 18 of their right to individual tourism, denied the opportunity to the 16-18 years old to make excursions to the Tatra Mountains, to hitch-hike in Poland, or - horribile dictu - to spend a month in the West on an exchange hasis. One might well raise the objection that even the Ministry of Interior does nőt take this paragraph very seriously, and passports are normally issued to the under-aged, too; furthermore, it is by no means impossible to obtain an invitation and to declare the person inviting one to be one's distant relative. It's true. Just fór this reason, however, the decree strikes a blow on those, who do nőt have any foreign relatives or do nőt dare to make untrue statements in the application form. On those, whose parents are nőt persons sufficiently important to prevent the police from demonstrating through their case that the law is law. LIke many other regulations, which are introduced in all their rigour, bút afterwards applied more liberally, this one is alsó aimed against the utterly powerless. That is, against the proletarians. (Provided, of course, that otherwise they could afford to send their children abroad.)

Passport restrictions can rightfully be applied in the case of those only

1. who are legally prosecuted;

2. who have been legally sentenced fór deliberate non-political crimes and are legally discriminated fór having a criminal record.

Any restriction of the freedom to travel in any other case is an injustice, an arbitrary restriction of our humán rights.

I proceed to produce a documentation on the violations of the law in connection with the freedom to travel.This documentation is intended to be a double-purpose one:

a./ I would like to check,by studying cases, the validity of the above- mentioned assumption, i.e. whether people of low social standing have their- 2 -