During the sentencing, the police entered the courtroom after the presiding judge wanted to evacuate the courtroom because the audience sang the Szozat. The rights protection organization CitizenGO has launched a petition for President Katalin Novák to pardon György Budaházy and his associates.
Today, the Capital Court of Appeal announced a verdict in the second instance in the repeated criminal proceedings against György Budaházy and his associates accused of terrorism, reports the Mandiner. In the verdict announced in a crowded courtroom, the court declared the majority of the defendants guilty of committing a terrorist act.
The court reduced the first-rate defendant György Budaházy's 17-year prison sentence to six years,
because he classified his act as a terrorist act of one order, not three. The time spent in arrest and under criminal supervision will be included in his sentence. For the same reasons, the penalties for several other charges were also reduced. The court sentenced the second and third accused to 5 and a half years, the fourth and fifth, and the eighth and ninth accused received 5 years each. Along with this, there were defendants whose sentences were aggravated. The judgment became final in the case of six defendants, while there is room for appeal in the case of four defendants.
Tension in the courtroom
After the verdict was announced, the audience sang the Sermon, to which Zsolt Török, the president of the judicial council, wanted to vacate the room. Accordingly, the police entered the courtroom to enforce the judge's decision, but after a short delay the presentation of the reasons for the verdict continued and everyone was allowed to stay in the courtroom.
According to the court's reasoning, the Jury did not agree with the defense's argument that the Metropolitan Court of First Instance committed several procedural violations and that it violated the principle of impartiality.
A petition is launched for a republican pardon
The rights protection organization CitizenGO has launched a petition for President Katalin Novák to pardon György Budaházy and his associates. According to them, the verdict in the case of György Budaházy et al deeply violates the sense of social justice and destroys faith in the rule of law. This is especially true given the fact that many injustices and serious crimes committed against civilians and innocent people remained unpunished before 2010 and, unfortunately, since then.
History
In the proceedings that have lasted for 13 years now, György Budaházy and 16 of his companions are accused of having attacked the properties of politicians such as István Hiller and János Kóka in 2007 and 2008, and they also beat politician and television presenter Sándor Csintalan.
In 2010, the Central Investigative General Prosecutor's Office submitted an indictment in the process known as the Hunnia case for a terrorist act and serious bodily harm committed for nefarious reasons. The defendants denied their guilt throughout.
Since then, a first-instance judgment was issued in 2016, which was overturned in 2018.
after the court found the commission of the terrorist act committed in the criminal organization to be proven.
In addition to him, five defendants received severe prison sentences of more than ten years, but the majority of the defendants also received prison terms to be served.
Many public figures have been in public with György Budaházy and his colleagues in recent weeks
Neurosurgeon Dr. András Csókay:
"Sentencing them to any kind of prison is simply nonsense. And I hope that in the end our Christian, national and civil government will not allow this."
Fruzsina Skrabski, journalist, film director:
"We know who the real criminals are, Gyurcsány, Gergényi and the others. There they smile and grin and live their everyday lives. And the people who tried to do it are threatened with prison and called terrorists.
(…)
I am fighting very, very hard so that the victims of the Budaházy trial can finally be freed from this continuous torture, and that these people can finally be free, go home to their families, wives, children, and live a normal life. I have a lot of faith in the presidential pardon of the republic. Please sign the petition about this!"
Dr. László Földi, security policy expert:
"In the series of trials that have been going on against György Budaházy and his associates for a decade and a half now, we see no trace of this particular justice system. After all, if they had committed anything, it was not an act against life to drag people for fifteen years.
(…)
I ask the dear viewers to sign the petition in the case, so that the president of the republic grants a pardon even if the judge gets lost again in the labyrinth of law or justice!"
Lawyer András Schiffer:
"Violence is of course punishable in every country. At the same time, György Budaházy and his companions have already served the punishment that is usually handed out for violent acts in Hungary. György Budaházy and his associates have now been under criminal proceedings for longer than the highest prison sentence imposed so far in this case. In addition, the court, the prosecutor's office, and the prosecutor's office attached the terrorist act to actions that seem completely unrealistic in light of the terrorist acts in Europe in recent years.
And it is especially outrageous that, while 13 years after the change of government in 2010, the main responsibles, political responsibles, principals, and clients of the 2006 police terror avoided the justice system, today the justice system spectacularly wants to make an example of György Budaházy and his colleagues.
Everyone is equally entitled to human rights, regardless of worldview or political creed. That is why no one, not even György Budaházy and his associates, can be victims of the fact that the justice system now wants to set an example, with various political and worldview goals, it wants to show György Budaházy and his associates who is the master of the house.
(…)
That is why I think that regardless of world view or political conviction, we must stand by György Budaházy and his colleagues. And that is why I invite you to sign the pardon request addressed to the President of the Republic Katalin Novák, which I really hope that the President of the Republic will be able to grant as soon as possible, preferably as a procedural pardon, but after the final verdict expected in the next few days, as appropriate, as an executive pardon to note."
Source: civilek.info / Mandiner / CitizenGO
Cover photo: MTI/Noémi Bruzák
