Banned Midwife Agnes Geréb Faces Retrial In Hungary
- 15 Jul 2014 9:00 AM
Geréb’s house arrest was terminated by the Capital Court of Appeals in February but she remains forbidden to leave Budapest. The last time Geréb appealed her sentence, a court lengthened her minimum period of incarceration to two-thirds of her two-year sentence and doubled her ban for practising as a midwife to ten years.
Support then came from a surprising corner for Geréb, whose practice of home births has become a matter of national debate in Hungary, across the political spectrum.
After the then-president Pál Schmitt ignored an appeal to pardon her, ruling party MPs lent their voices in support. Fidesz MPs Erika Szábó, Illona Ékes and Gabriella Szottfried Bábi and Christian Democrat MPs Jozséf Michl, Balázs Bús and Richárd Tarnai told Schmitt in an open letter that the sentence had been too severe, regardless of the legitimacy of the verdict.
Their appeals fell on deaf ears, however. When Geréb appealed to incumbent President János Áder for clemency, he said he would not decide before legal proceedings were concluded.
Source: The Budapest Beacon
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