reformed pastor of anti-Semitism, overturning his 18-month suspended prison sentence, local media reported Friday, November 7.
Pastor Lorant Hegedus, who was also a former vice president of the far right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP) was initially sentenced over perceived ant-Jewish statements in his party’s newsletter in 2001.
In it he suggested to segregate Jews from "the Hungarian Christian nation" saying that "if we do not they will take our places." The synod of Hungarian Reformed Church later declared the article irreconcilable with the Gospel and the Christian faith.
"FASCIST METHODS"
"Since not all Palestinians can be smoked out of the banks of the Jordan river by using Fascist methods that shame even the Nazis, they are now coming again here, to the banks of the Danube river, sometimes as internationalists, sometimes by showing off their national sentiments, sometimes as cosmopolitans, to kick once more into the Hungarians," Hegedus wrote.
"Hungarians, based on the heritage and legal continuity of 1,000 years, listen to the only life-offering message of the 1,000th Christian Hungarian year: Exclude them, because if you do not do so, they will do it to you!", he added.
While acknowledging that the remarks "may have been offensive, shocking and alarming" the Budapest Court of Appeal said it had overturned the lower Metropolitan Court’s 2002 ruling on Thursday, November 6, as the Hegedus writings did "not constitute a crime."
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
"Restraining the freedom of expression by means of the criminal law was necessary only as the last resort; if the expression in question is specifically and directly endangering public order, the social system and peace," the court said.
Hegedus, the first Hungarian politician to be found initially guilty in a case of anti-Semitism, was carried out of the appeals court room on the shoulders of his celebrating supporters, Hungarian television reported.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs told Hungarian TV2 television that he "was shocked by the acquittal." Kovacs, who is also the chairman of the main governing Hungarian Socialist Party, said the ruling "had demonstrated that the government’s bill on hate speech" currently under debate "must be adopted at the earliest."
WARNING ABOUT IMAGE
The minister warned that the verdict "will harm Hungary’s reputation abroad and will affect domestic politics". Jewish rights groups have threatened to take the case to international courts if Hegedus went unpunished in Hungary.
"We demand that the Hungarian government and legal system ensure the protection of Jews to the same extent as other citizens," Gusztav Zoltai, president of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Parishes (Mazsihisz), told Hungarian News Agency, MTI.
"If our legal possibilities are exhausted in Hungary, we will be forced to take the case to international forums," he said. Anti-semitism remains a sensitive issue in a country that was a close ally of Nazi Germany during most of World War Two. At least 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
MIEP CONTINUES
Despite the controversy, MIEP continues to operate. Last month thousands of people attended a MIEP rally where French right-wing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen spoke against European Union membership.
British revisionist historian David Irving, who has denied the Holocaust, also spoke to supporters of the party, which failed to win any seats in parliament in the 2002 general election. The party held 12 seats in the 386-member assembly between 1998 and 2002.
However some Jewish officials, Holocaust survivors and diplomats remain concerned about nationalism in Hungary, which hopes to join the EU next year.
