The three young men who allegedly broke six stone crosses from Margit Bridge in Budapest turned themselves in to the police. The suspects explained their actions by being drunk, the Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK) announced on the police website on Tuesday.

As we wrote , six stone crosses were broken on the north side of Margit Bridge last Friday at dawn, in the case of II. the district police station initiated proceedings against unknown perpetrators. After what happened, the authority published the footage of the surveillance cameras, on the basis of which they began to look for three, as yet unknown, perpetrators.

The young people reported to the police on Monday evening. A 20-year-old and a 21-year-old man were questioned on suspicion of vandalism, and their third companion was questioned as a witness. The two suspects admitted to committing the crime, which was explained by their drunkenness.

It is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years

Lawyer Tamás Gaudi-Nagy pointed out to the Hungarian Nation: the cross is a Christian religious symbol, but also a symbol of national unity, which is also in the Basic Law and our coat of arms. The executive director of the National Legal Protection Service emphasized: that is why, if a religious symbol - in this case a cross - is damaged, it is an aggravating circumstance.

If someone damages an object of religious respect, it already results in a criminal classification, regardless of the value of the offense, and can be punished with imprisonment of up to three years

he added. Tamás Gaudi-Nagy also pointed out that such vandalism also has a targeted message threatening Christian people.

- That is why such an act can also be evaluated as violence against members of the community, it can be considered a hate crime if the perpetrator damaged a religious symbol by destroying it in order to send a message of anti-community to the members of the Christian community, as a significant religious group, and to cause alarm in them, moreover, on the occasion of the holiday commemorating the founding of the Christian Hungarian state 

- emphasized the specialist who, according to him

in order to protect the majority and our values, a deterrent sentence must be passed to prevent similar crimes from happening again.

MTI / Hungarian Nation

Cover image: Hungarian Nation