Hungary: American FBI to join investigation of Roma murders

The FBI will help Hungarian police to find the perpetrators of the murders of five Roma in recent months, National Police chief József Bencze announced on MTV Monday morning. Unidentified people have killed five Roma and injured several others in a series of attacks since last summer.

Justice and Law Enforcement Minister Tibor Draskovics told reporters later that he had asked Hungarian police to ask the US agency to help solve the killings. A series of very grave crimes unprecedented in Hungary has been committed, and the US has relevant experience, he said. The FBI has greater experience in hunting serial killers than Hungarian police and it has offices in 100 countries, so it can draw up a personality sketch of the murderers based on much more information, Bencze observed. The police have requested the services of the same FBI profiling team that identified a Miskolc man early this year who had sent e-mail messages to the cabinet since 2007 threatening to blow up various public institutions.