After twenty-six years of mystery, a five-year trial, dozens of witnesses and evidence, a verdict was reached in the first instance in the case of the Fenyő murder.
Tamás Gyárfás was sentenced to seven years in prison and Tamás Portik was sentenced to life in prison in the case of the murder of media entrepreneur János Fenyő 26 years ago at first instance on Thursday.
The media entrepreneur-sports manager, former TV producer, was found guilty of the crime of accessory to murder, while the second defendant was found guilty of the crime of abetment of murder. Both defendants were banned from public affairs for ten years.
Gyárfás can be released on parole at the earliest after serving four-fifths of the sentence, while Portik can be paroled after twenty years at the earliest.
According to the verdict, Gyárfás commissioned Portik and Péter Tasnádi, who have since been legally convicted in other cases, to kill his business rival, János Fenyő. Tamás Portik organized the murder, hired the Slovakian Jozef Rohác, who has since been convicted of numerous underworld showdowns, and carried out the assassination on February 11, 1998.
According to Index's on-site report, the final act of the Fenyő murder, the sentencing, began under strict security measures. The judge was brought in a blacked-out police bus, Tamás Gyárfás was at large, while Tamás Portik walked into the courtroom of the Metropolitan Court in a circle of TEK employees.
Gyárfás's face was calm, he looked around the room, then sat down on the defendant's bench. He appeared in the almost familiar white shirt and suit.
Meanwhile, Portik followed the armed men in prison uniform, tried to talk to his lawyer even at the last moment, and then told the judge that he thought the verdict was already written in advance.
Council President Péter Póta warned the audience, then quickly got to the point and announced that he had become Tamász Portik's new defender. It turned out that he also appealed the award of his former defender, Linda Danicz, and then again accused the judge of bias. Péter Póta evaluated Portik's handwritten paper for the tribunal as a new motion for disqualification. Just five minutes later, the verdict was pronounced.
He briefly communicated the decision to the defendants almost to the day exactly on the twenty-sixth anniversary of the murder, but the reasoning lasted for many hours. No wonder, because a huge amount of documents have been produced about the negotiations of the last five years, where Tamás Gyárfás turned from a well-known sports journalist into the suspected client of one of the most mysterious murders in Hungarian forensics.
Péter Póta first briefly summarized the moments before the murder in just ten minutes, before moving on to evaluating the evidence. He explained that more than half a dozen witnesses were heard at the court, and the judge refused to hear several witnesses from the prosecution and the defense. Both defendants denied the crime, which is why it was crucial whether the persons interviewed were trustworthy.
Meanwhile, Portik listened to the reasoning staring straight ahead, only occasionally looking up at the council president, while Gyárfás was immersed in his phone.
A clinical psychologist also examined the defendants and stated that Tamás Gyárfás is a manipulative personality. The former president of the swimming association refused the polygraph test, subjecting it to conditions. However, Póta believes that Gyárfás was aware that such an investigation could have had a negative impact.
Mr. Portik, how are you? asked the judge during the reasoning, when he noticed that the second-ranking defendant looked a little lethargic. Portik said that he was fine and quickly commented on what had been said.
In his justification, Póta explained that if Gyárfás was really innocent, he would turn to the press, as he had done before. He could have cleared himself earlier with a public performance, but according to the judge, the first-rate defendant did not use this opportunity because he had something to hide.
Portik was already shaking his head and was about to interject when Póta addressed the man's defenses. The second-rate defendant once accused the police, and on another occasion referred to his mentor when talking about the audio recordings.
Originally, Péter Póta would have announced a verdict last fall, but Tamás Portik unexpectedly started to fire the lawyers representing him in order to draw the first verdict.
In this way, Portik's defense attorney did not give a defense speech, on the other hand, Gyárfás' lawyer spoke for days about controversial witnesses and doubtful evidence.
Tamás Gyárfás argued for his innocence even at the last moment, while Portik, with the right to the last word, first tried to shift the suspicion to Albanian mobsters, and then accused the prosecutor of murder as well, before bringing up Sándor Pintér as well.
The hearing before the sentencing turned scandalous at the last moment, when Tamás Portik's son attacked the judge who came to the hearing. The purpose of this action would probably have been to delay the verdict, but it could no longer delay the sentencing. After the court's decision on Thursday, both the defendants and the prosecution will probably appeal, so the case of János Fenyő's murder can continue on the court.
