Gyurcsany testifies on 2006 anti-government riots

Budapest (MTI) – Ferenc Gyurcsany, prime minister during anti-government riots in 2006, said in a court testimony on Tuesday that the officers accused in connection with the riots were not guilty of the offences they had been charged with.

Gyurcsany said he had phoned deputy policy chief Arpad Szabadfi on the night of Sept. 18, 2006, when the attack on the TV headquarters in Budapest took place. He said he had given him the “request, or, if you like, the order” that the police should use all legal means to protect law and order, public safety and public buildings, including the TV headquarters. Gyurcsany said: “in a difficult situation this is a prime minister’s duty”.

Gyurcsany said he did not give any orders to police other than the one to preserve law and order.

He said Szabadfi told him early morning the next day that police had been unable to protect the TV headquarters. Then the national security cabinet held a meeting where police leaders asked the prime minister to secure funds for paying overtime in the police force, an emergency centre, technical equipment and protective gear, he said.

Gyurcsany said that the secret services had not given prior warning of the events, they only reconstructed them on Sept. 19.

To the question why police was unable to secure the TV headquarders Gyurcsany responded that an independent committee headed by Katalin Gonczol was in charge of investigating the events.