Hungary’s Supreme Court Kúria Acquits Former Budapest District Leaders

  • 21 May 2014 9:00 AM
Hungary’s Supreme Court Kúria Acquits Former Budapest District Leaders
The Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, acquitted on Tuesday the former mayor and his deputy of abusing their office. The two former officials, Socialist Mayor Gyula Molnár of the 11th district and Imre Lakos, his Free Democrat deputy, were accused of attempting to sell a valuable property owned by the local council to a private company without a public tender in 2006.

Molnár and Lakos both denied the charges right from the start and insisted that the legal procedure that started in 2010, when the general election was held, had been politically motivated. The prosecutor appealed a Sept. 2012 court acquittal.

The Budapest court of appeals then sentenced Molnár to eight months in prison for abuse of office during his term as mayor and handed Imre Lakos a six-month suspended prison sentence in October last year.

It also fined them several million forints and barred Molnár from public office for two years. Molnár, in response, referred to the first ruling, and stressed that the charges were unfounded as no financial loss had been caused and the entire sale process had been conducted according to the letter of the law.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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