Gábor Fábián was one of the victims of the October 2006 police action. We could easily say that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but unfortunately, everything that happened that day goes far beyond this simple phrase. Gábor Fábián went through the hell of hells, neither physically nor mentally he could leave behind everything he suffered 15 years ago.
- Ferenc Gyurcsány's Ószöd speech outraged me in the same way as many of my compatriots, I followed the events of September 2006 and the brutal actions of the police on TV and news channels. We were out in Transylvania before the 23rd of October, and when we came back, an acquaintance of mine and I arranged a meeting at the Astoria to commemorate 1956 - recalls Gábor Fábián, who at the time thought it unimaginable that he would be swimming in blood a few minutes later. –
We listened to the speeches, and when Philip Rákay said that "the event is over, everyone should go home in peace", we noticed explosions. We didn't know what the noise could be, anyway, we headed towards Deák tér to take the metro home. I got to the Film Museum when I saw that the crowd going home from the Fidesz event was standing still, because tear gas grenades were flying towards us from Madách tér. So that there was about 150-200 meters between the police and us, i.e. the crowd, so there was no conflict of any kind that might have justified the shots. I understood that the metro and Deák tér were inaccessible, so I headed in another direction. It was not very possible to avoid the police, by the time I got to the corner of Dob utca, where there was a bar, the police were also there.
I remember an older, confused uncle standing on the corner, he didn't even understand what was happening - let's say neither did I - but the police were telling us to go, go. The old man turned the corner, I would have gone on too, but at that moment I felt that six or eight people jumped on me from behind, says the man, who still doesn't understand why the police attacked him.
They dragged Gábor Fábián behind the queue wall while they beat him.
"I felt indescribable pain." Behind the queue wall, they tried to handcuff him with the quick-tie that was used on many people at that time. Six of them stood over me to prevent me from accidentally running away, and two policemen tried to handcuff me. This didn't work the first time because they used the belt the other way around. Then they broke my shoulder, I already told them to turn the strap because it would break my shoulder. Well, then he turned it around and pulled it on my wrist in such a way that after half an hour my hand was black. When they sat me down, one of the policemen stood on my legs and swung on me! I was in so much pain! I immediately felt that something was wrong with my leg, it was broken.
They then pulled me to the entrance of the buffet, spat at me, and screamed at me, "Damn Fidesz mercenary, we're going to shoot you here, but if not here, then in the police station." They gave me such encouraging words - says the man, who just sat there and listened.
On Madách Square, they were dragged into a prisoner transporter, like a sack of potatoes, in which there were already a couple of people. He told the policeman that his hands and feet hurt terribly, it would be good if he called an ambulance or a doctor, but he had no chance to help. - They took me to Gyorskogsi Street, and a policeman came there, and when he saw me, he said: "My God, this guy's hand is going to fall off if we don't cut the quick-tie!"
A doctor examined him and then told him that he needed to be taken to the hospital. He saw that my leg was broken, a finger on my left hand was broken. In addition, I am left-handed, and to this day I cannot fully bend this finger.
It later turned out, however, that the policeman who did this was just called "finger breaker" in the inner ranks, among themselves. His specialty was breaking the fingers of captured and tied people. It must have been like a trademark for him, he recalls.
- Three police officers escorted me to Szent János hospital. When the x-ray nurse saw me, she said: "Today is the thirtieth day that you were brought in here." He asked if my family knew what happened to me, I said, they didn't let me make phone calls. He offered to call them, but when I handed him my phone, a detective ran into the X-ray room screaming that we couldn't call anyone. The nurse had enough presence of mind to tell the cop that he couldn't just break in, it was an X-ray room.
The detective took my phone and left. The nurse finally called my wife from her own phone, my son has already come for me. Well, the police panicked a little at that, they said to each other that "we're in a lot of shit", and then they left quickly, as if nothing had happened - says Gábor Fábián, who escaped from the detention center thanks to the nurse.
The man was already recovering at home when more and more amateur footage of the beatings on the 23rd appeared. He began to investigate and, miraculously, it turned out that in the bar where he was beaten to death, a girl secretly recorded everything with her phone. – This recording saved me from being convicted, because the police initiated proceedings against me on the charge of incitement against the community, but there was also an accusation in my mother that I threw stones at them and shouted.
At the trial, we handed over the recording, which clearly proved my innocence, the charges against me were dropped, he emphasizes.
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the full article in Magyar Nemzet Picture: Miklós Tekős