Hungary’s prison service directorate BVOP has firmly rejected media reports claiming “inhumane conditions” in a Budapest prison where an Italian woman is kept for alleged participation in organised armed attacks in Budapest last year. “We firmly reject unfounded statements made by a former inmate giving account of rats and bedbugs, poor food, insufficient hygienic conditions and inadequate medical care,” BVOP department head Mihály Kovács said, adding that Italian and Hungarian press reports citing the inmate were “a lie”. “Such unfounded accusations seriously hurt the reputation of BVOP and its staff,” he said. Hungarian prisons strictly observe the regulations and respect human dignity, Kovacs said, adding that inmates were ensured the right to lodge a complaint or file a report. “The Italian citizen has so done at the office of the fundamental rights ombudsman which, concluding an investigation, has not find BVOP being at fault,” he said. The woman is one of three defendants kept in prison on charges of participation in violent attacks by the Antifa movement in February 2023.