Portik was convicted in February 2014 as an abettor to the murder of József Prisztás in 1996, but the Capital Court of Appeals ordered new proceedings. The crime was connected to a loan deal.

Last October Portik was sentenced to ten years in penitentiary, while István Hatvani, who was charged with shooting Prisztás, received nine years in prison.

A third defendant was sentenced to ten years in penitentiary, but this sentence is not final and he may still lodge an appeal.

The Court of Appeals stated that while Portik strove to present himself as an average man, he wielded considerable influence in the criminal world, and the Prisztás murder was an “unbridled settling of accounts, an underworld war.”

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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