US Court Seeks Arrest Of Far-Right Hungarian Portal Owner
- 16 Jul 2014 9:00 AM
A court in the US has initiated the arrest of Béla Varga, the owner of kuruc.info, an extremist Hungarian website, The Press Democrat reported online. According to the US website, Varga has fled to Canada to avoid legal proceedings launched under charges of harassment and lethal menaces. A relevant court in San Francisco ordered a bench warrant against Varga after he had failed to turn up for two hearings, the portal added.
Varga was detained earlier and released on a bail of 250,000 dollars in May.
The court has now established another warrant of 300,000 dollars, a sum Varga should pay to be released if he is arrested again. According to the charges, Varga harassed the attorney representing Hungary’s Act and Protection Foundation, which seeks to close down the far-right Hungarian portal.
Cloudfare, the company operating kuruc.info’s server, told The Press Democrat that it was ready to cooperate with the US authorities.
A representative of the company, however, declined to answer a question if they would continue to provide services to kuruc.info. In July 2012, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán requested assistance against the notorious website in a letter to US congressmen, and referred to kuruc.info as the “centre of anti-Semitism in Hungary”.
Varga was identified by Hungarian whistleblower atlatszo.hu as the owner of kuruc.info in September 2012.
Under US rules, if a bench warrant is in force, the police will not search for the person but if he contacts the police - to renew a driving licence, for example - he will be arrested.
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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