Hungary: 17 people connected to Jobbik party charged with terrorism

The Hungarian State Prosecutor has charged extreme-right leader Györge Budaházy and 16 other people considered his associates with committing terrorism and other violent crimes. The MTI news agency reported on the charges today.

According to the indictment, Budaházy set up a gang in 2007 to commit attacks on Hungarian MPs and thereby put pressure on the legislature. That same year, members of the gang evidently shot and threw Molotov cocktails at the homes of two Hungarian MPs. In February 2008, they committed similar attacks in several places outside of the capital.

Gang members threw Molotov cocktails at the office of the Hungarian Socialist Party and the Free Democrats’ Party in Budapest. Police report they also attacked buildings connected to left-wing circles and gay communities.

Police say Budaházy’s group was evidently also responsible for the beating of television reporter Sándor Scintalan. He suffered serious injuries as a result.

Budaházy is a close ally of the right-wing extremist party Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary), which made it into Parliament after the April elections. In 2007, Jobbik founded a paramilitary organization, the Hungarian Guard. Its main aim is to change the political regime in the country and provide self-defense for Hungarians against alleged attacks from neighboring states, i.e., Romania, Serbia or Slovakia, all countries in which large Hungarian minorities currently live. Members of the Guard also attack minorities in Hungary, Roma in particular.