President Novák pardons seven defendants in right-wing activist Budahazy’s case

Katalin Novák, Hungary’s president, has granted a pardon to seven of the 17 defendants in the case of right-wing activist György Budaházy and his accomplices who had been convicted for carrying out terrorist activities and other crimes more than a decade ago, the president’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the charges, Budaházy set up a terrorist organisation called the Hungarian Arrows to carry out attacks against lawmakers of the then ruling Socialist-Free Democrat alliance between 2007 and 2009. Budaházy and his accomplices were also charged with throwing petrol bombs at the homes of Socialist and Free Democrat politicians and their parties’ headquarters as well as Molotov cocktails at gay bars and outlets, such as a ticket office in Budapest’s 13th district.

In the summer of 2016, the municipal court of Budapest sentenced Budaházy to 13 years in prison. Of the 17 defendants, 15 were sentenced to between 5 and 13 years in prison each for terrorist activity.

This March, in the retrial of the case dismissed in 2018, the municipal court of Budapest sentenced Budaházy for 17 years in prison, details HERE. Five other accomplices were handed prison sentences of more than ten years, and others of around five years.