(ANSA) - BUDAPEST - The Hungarian Constitutional Court declared as illegal the norm of the national criminal code which punished the display of symbols of the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, such as the hammer and sickle or the swastika. The decision came after reviewing a section of the Criminal Code, which prohibited the public use of the Red Star and of other symbols of totalitarian regimes, explained a note of the Highest Hungarian Court.

The revision of the national legislation was in fact imposed by a judgement of the European Court of Human Rights, dating back to 2011, which punished Hungary in relation to the case of Janos Fratanolo. During a TV interview in 2004, this then-member of the Workers' Party had shown off a red star pin on his jacket and had been fined by the Hungarian judiciary. After filing an appeal to the Strasbourg Court, Fratanolo won the case because the European judges sentenced that Hungary had violated the right to freedom of expression. (ANSA).