László Varju, an MP for Hungary’s largest opposition party, Democratic Coalition (DK), has been convicted for an assault committed during an opposition protest at the state television headquarters in 2018.
In his reasoning, the presiding judge explained the MEP did not have the right to enter the studio of the public broadcaster and called his actions provocative and offensive.
Several prominent members of the DK were present at the sentencing including its president, Ferenc Gyurcsány, MP Zsolt Gréczy, and MEP Sándor Rónai. During the prosecutor’s speech, the DK party activists in the room occasionally reacted to the speech with loud laughter.
László Varju said he had not committed any crime, nor did he have any intention to do so. He recalled the action of the opposition MPs against the MTVA headquarters, the public events that took place at that time, and the events that happened to him in the headquarters.
He claimed that when the security guards tried to remove him, he only defended himself instinctively, but also referred to other alleged grievances.
He said he was brought to court because the ruling party majority did not like his political views and that this was part of a process of intimidation.
Before the verdict, Ferenc Gyurcsány, the chairman of DK, attempted to put pressure on the court and told his supporters not to be shy and to remember the names of the prosecutors and judges because they would be good witnesses in a trial against the regime.
The presidents of the National Office for the Judiciary (NJO), György Senyei, and the National Council of the Judiciary (NCCJ), Péter Szabó, wrote a letter to Gyurcsány in which they explained that if the participants in a case are politicians, it does not mean that there are political trials, as the Hungarian constitution declares the equality of clients before the law.
