The court acquitted another defendant of charges of negligence and upheld the primary ruling for others, under which the procedures had been terminated in October 2015 for reasons of obsolescence.

The ruling Fidesz party in a statement derided the ruling as “unacceptable” and “appallingly mild”, adding that innocent demonstrators injured by police at the time had been sentenced more punitively in previous “show trials”.

It is of paramount importance that the justice system provides “proportionate” punishments, the statement added.

Opposition Jobbik slammed the ruling, branding it as “another spit in the face” at Hungarian democracy. Jobbik spokesman Péter Jakab insisted that responsibility for the events of 2006 lay with Gyurcsány.

The Budapest Court of Appeals “weighed the events of 2006 according to [ruling] Fidesz’s laws and concluded that there is nothing wrong with shooting people’s eyes out, crippling them and ruining their lives”, Jakab said.

He said this meant that the police leaders who had “participated in the police terror for which there is no statute of limitations” had “got off scot free”, noting that the court had acquitted Bene and József Dobozi, former head of the Police Security Service.

Jakab also insisted that protestors who had participated in the riots against “the Gyurcsány regime” had earlier been sentenced to a combined 125 years in prison.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.
MTI photo: Bruzák Noémi