Gulyas: Govt mulling law to prevent release of murderers on probation

The government is drafting a bill that would ban the possibility of probation for criminals who have committed or attempted to commit murder, Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister's Office, told a government press briefing on Thursday. The move comes after a man imprisoned for murder in Gyor, in western Hungary, released on probation, went on to murder his two children and commit suicide. The courts "made a grave mistake" by releasing the man, Gulyas said, adding that he had been handed an unacceptably lenient sentence" for crimes committed previously. "Had he not been sentenced so leniently he would still be behind bars and the children would be alive," Gulyas said. The law, he added, offered judges the option of meting out stricter punishments but they often failed to do so. Judges should provide a justification for any deviation from the standard range of sentencing, he said.