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- From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
- Subject: HATE CRIMES: Hungary Skinhead Trial: "Crimes Against Humanity"
- Message-ID: <1992Jul27.142028.7933@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:20:28 GMT
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- Topic 197 IPS: Hungary - Skinhead Trial
- hrcoord gen.racism 7:14 am Jul 23, 1992
-
- From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
- Subject: IPS: Hungary - Skinhead Trial
-
- /* Written 12:16 am Jul 23, 1992 by newsdesk in
- cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
- rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of
- original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
-
- Title: HUNGARY: Largest skinhead trial in Hungarian history gets
- underway
-
- an inter press service feature
-
- by krisztina fenyo
-
- budapest, jul 21 (ips) -- a budapest high court has begun hearing
- charges against 48 hungarian skinheads charged with ''crimes
- against humanity'' in the largest case of its kind.
-
- the skinheads were accused of committing a ''crime against
- national, racial and ethnic groups'' which in hungary falls under
- crimes against humanity when they went on a violent rampage in
- budapest last winter.
-
- besides being the largest number of skinheads to be charged at one
- time, the trial represents the first time that skinheads have been
- accused of committing crimes against humanity rather than of the
- lesser transgression of hooliganism.
-
- ''the prosecution has now changed its conception of the charges
- and found a legal intent which is more severe than hooliganism,''
- said defense lawyer andras halasz in a radio interview.
-
- ''the fact that the same crimes were judged differently yesterday
- cannot influence today's judgment. the proper qualification for
- those crimes before should have been what it is today,'' counters
- prosecutor sandor kopacsi.
-
- the 48 defendants, many of whom are no older than 15 years of age,
- are part of a larger group that regularly goes on the rampage
- described as 'beating tours' in budapest.
-
- the 48 are accused of having gone on such a tour on jan. 25 of
- this year hunting down gypsies, arabs, blacks and satanists. they
- allegedly gas-sprayed and kicked a man they took for a gypsy,
- inflicted serious injuries on three blacks, damaged a car believed
- to be owned by a gypsy and then attacked a pub.
-
- after first trying to fend off the attacks with chairs both
- gypsies and non-gypsies saw their escape route through the
- backdoor blocked by the skinheads. several gypsies were severely
- injured before police arrived.
-
- the indictment of the 48 lists nine other similar incidents mostly
- against arabs and gypsies. it says the skinheads employed iron
- bars, gas spray, chains, an axe, wooden clubs, cable, a baseball
- bat, a vacuum cleaner hose and chair legs.
-
- many of the defendants say their racial hatred stems from similiar
- experiences in the past at the hands of gypsies and expressed fear
- that foreigners were endangering their country. (more/ips)
-
- hungary: largest skinhead trial in hungarian history gets
- underwa(2-e)
-
- hungary: skinhead trial (2)
-
- ''the gypsies who steal get flats because they are a minority
- while the hungarians who work don't get a flat,'' one of the
- defendants said in a radio interview. another charged that
- foreigners were given privileged access to hungarian
- universities.
-
- ''we want a nicer world that's good for everyone, that is for the
- hungarians in hungary, for the germans in germany, where the
- country belongs to those who were born there,'' said yet a third
- skinhead.
-
- defense lawyer halasz blames the social turmoil in hungary for the
- skinhead's behaviour. with no cohesive force in a society in
- transition, these young people lack a place to which they feel
- they can belong, he says. ''the problem is that the cohesive force
- that they find is a negative ideology.''
-
- in their radio interviews, the skinheads reinforced their lawyer's
- position, saying the sense of community and belonging was what had
- attracted them to the gang.
-
- ''if someone shaves his head and wears a bomber jacket and boots
- other skinheads will say hello to him in the street without ever
- having met, just because they look the same,'' one said.
- (end/ips/np/kf/jmd/92)
-
- Conf?
-