The trial at the court of Szeged opened with reading the indictment. It says B. was driving a Hummer all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and moved in a convoy with three other identical vehicles along road no. 43 from a border-crossing at Nagylak towards Makó. Upon entering Hungary one of the drivers was ticketed for speeding. Driving his ATV, B. repeatedly entered the lane of cars moving in the opposite direction and almost pushed a police car with a speed camera off the road. The driver of that car asked for police reinforcement.

Motorcycle policemen arrived in the scene and they caught up with the convoy at Apátfalva. B. tried to push one of the motorcycle policemen off the road. That is when both of them opened fire targeted at the tires of the ATV.

Officer Imre Kenéz overtook the Hummer to order it to pull over. At a crossing Kenéz stopped in the road, got off his motorcycle and was standing in the road to block the way of B. First B. halted, then suddenly he started his ATV and ran over him. Actually he attempted to run over his motorbike too but it got trapped on top of it.

Kenéz was rushed to hospital but died upon arrival. Having run over Kenéz, B. attacked the other policeman with a knife. The policeman shot at B. and his bullets hit him four times. A scuffle of a quarter of an hour followed before the policeman and a civilian helping him managed to handcuff the defendant.

Absent B.’s testimony in court, Judge Attila Joó read out the testimony B. had made during the investigation.

B. consistently referred the case as an “accident” and denied having run over Kenéz deliberately. When he “accidentally” ran over the officer, he “couldn’t see” because the other policeman had pepper sprayed him. B. denied having attacked the other policeman. On the contrary, he “tried to help the wounded policeman.” B. didn’t deny possessing a knife but he claimed he hadn’t taken it from his pocket. During the scuffle he was in a panic and fought “to save his life.”

The court heard a testimony by an eyewitness, a truck driver of Romanian citizenship. The trucker reached Apátfalva after B. had already run over Kenéz. While he tried to help the injured officer, he heard several shots and saw a knife on the ground. He said it took at least 15 minutes before the other policeman and a man helping him could attach a handcuff onto a hand of B.

The forensic psychiatrist says B. is not mentally ill and nothing proves that B. is a narcotic, alcohol or medicine addict. Speaking to the psychiatrist during the investigation, B. said the whole incident occurred because police had harassed him and his companions (they served a speed ticket on one of them). During his psychiatric examination B. consistently denied having run over Kenéz deliberately. The trial will continue when police eyewitnesses give testimony.

Source: Magyar Nemzet

Translated by Budapest Telegraph