Socialists: Fidesz using ‘show trials’ to increase popularity – Fidesz response

Budapest (MTI) – The Socialist Party on Thursday said the ruling Fidesz party is organising “show trials” reminiscent of methods used in Hungary’s “darkest dictatorship” to increase its popularity.

Gergely Bárándy, the Socialist deputy head of parliament’s legislative committee, told a press conference that the embezzlement trial of Miklós Hagyó, in which the former Socialist deputy mayor of Budapest was given two-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, revealed that charges against Hagyó “were based on lies” and that he “never received bribes”.

Hagyó was accused of running a criminal gang and causing huge damages to municipal public transport company BKV in the years before August 2008. He was acquitted of the main corruption charges but the court ruled that he had instigated embezzlement.

Bárándy said people who had participated in the “show trial” against Hagyo “were rewarded” by Fidesz, noting that the prosecutor in charge of the case became a consultant to Budapest Mayor István Tarlós.

Bárándy said it was “no accident” that most accusations against former Socialist government officials were made during election campaigns, adding, at the same time, that the defendants usually ended up being acquitted. He noted that former 11th district mayor Gyula Molnár, Gyorgy Szilvássy, former minister in charge of the secret services and Béla Schwartz, the former mayor of Ajka, were all accused of corruption, but were later acquitted of charges.