Two leading politicians from the Left Party met Maja T., who is imprisoned in Budapest waiting for an Antifa trial. One of their demands is that the German judiciary should organise her return.
Martin Schirdewan, the current co-chairman of the German Left Party, visited Maja T. in prison in Budapest on Wednesday. He criticised the government in Berlin for allowing left-wing activists to be extradited to Hungary, even though no humane treatment or constitutional proceedings can be expected there. “Nobody deserves to be treated like this,” said Schirdewan about Maja T.’s prison conditions, who he said was under round-the-clock video surveillance and isolated from fellow prisoners. T. also complains of pest and insect infestation. “All international prison rules are being disregarded,” Schirdewan told “nd”.
Maja T. was “handed over” by the Saxon State Criminal Police Office to the authorities in Budapest via Austria at dawn on 28 June. There, the non-binary person is to be tried in connection with the right-wing march “Day of Honour” in February 2023 for attacks on alleged or actual participants. The charges include grievous bodily harm and membership of a “left-wing extremist organisation of young adults”.
The extradition, which had been planned for over two weeks, was criticised as the authorities apparently wanted to pre-empt summary proceedings by T.’s lawyers against the measure before the Constitutional Court. The judges in Karlsruhe ruled at around 10 a.m. on 28 June that T. could not be extradited as there was a risk of particular harassment in Hungary due to the gender identity of the person concerned. By this time, however, T. had long since been handed over to the Austrian border police.
Hungary currently holds the Presidency of the European Council. Schirdewan, who is also a Member of the European Parliament, said that the German government should seek the return of the imprisoned anti-fascist. This is also what the petition of a parents’ initiative is calling for, which already had 62,000 signatures on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the German Committee for Fundamental Rights and Democracy and the Association of Democratic Lawyers joined the momentum and called for “detention alternatives” for T. as well as access for the German defence lawyers.
Ilaria Salis, who has been imprisoned there for over a year, had also previously drawn attention to the inhumane conditions in the Hungarian capital’s prison. As she successfully stood as a candidate for Italy’s green-left list in the European elections and enjoys immunity as a Member of the European Parliament, the judicial authorities in Budapest had to approve her release.
“I know from my group colleague in the European Parliament, Ilaria Salis, who has experienced what the prison conditions are like for politically unpopular people in Hungary,” explained Schirdewan before travelling to Budapest. He described Hungary as an “authoritarian regime” and the extradition there as “a disgrace for Germany”.
The Left Party leader also criticised the German Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann (Liberals), for not ensuring that the accused young anti-fascists received a constitutional trial in Germany. The lawyers of several people wanted on arrest warrants had offered that they hand themselves in if the judicial authorities agreed to a trial in Germany. Schirdewan wants to coordinate with other Social Democrats in the European Parliament in order to win them over in favour of the plan.
Martina Renner, domestic policy spokesperson for the Left Party group in the Bundestag, who also travelled to Budapest on Wednesday, is likewise calling for T.’s return. The two politicians are demanding an investigation into the behaviour of the Berlin Public Prosecutor General’s Office and the Saxon police in connection with the hasty extradition of T. to Hungary. Possible breaches of the law must “in case of doubt, be followed by personal consequences”, explained Schirdewan and Renner. Renner described the charges against T. as a “political trial”.
At the behest of the federal prosecutor’s office, 29-year-old Hanna S. is in custody in Nuremberg on suspicion of membership of a “left-wing extremist criminal organisation”. She is also accused of being involved in attacks on suspected right-wing extremists in Budapest. However, Hungary has apparently not yet submitted an extradition request.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Protest in solidarity with Maja T. in Dresden (Anarchist Black Cross).
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