PHOTOS, VIDEO: Pope Francis’ first beneficence in Hungary: Hungarian “terrorists” released

The upcoming visit by Pope Francis serves as an opportunity for President Katalin Novák to use her right to grant pardons, and she has decided to do so in a number of cases, the president’s office said on Thursday. Among those to be granted pardon are people convicted in the Hunnia case.

Presidential pardon for the “terrorists”

György Budaházy and his accomplices committed Molotov cocktail attacks and other attacks with explosives against leading politicians and offices of the ruling parties (Socialists, SZDSZ) between 2007 and 2009. Among their targets, there were György Szilvásy, a minister of the Gyurcsány government, István Hiller, a former Socialist minister for education, and János Kóka, the parliamentary group leader of co-ruling SZDSZ. Furthermore, they set on fire a club (Red Csepel), the Broadway Ticket Office and two LGBTQ bars. Moreover, they tried to rob an ATM in Székesfehérvár.

The group called itself “The Arrows of the Hungarians” and even beat Sándor Csintalan, a well-known Hungarian journalist, in 2007 near his home, in a garage with iron rods. Before, the Budapest court decreased the jail sentence of multiple gang members, index.hu wrote. Budaházy would have had to spend 2-2.5 more years in prison without the president’s pardon.