After being released from prison in Hungary, a 29-year-old man from Berlin is now in pre-trial detention in Germany. The Saxony Criminal Police Office is responsible for the continuation of his detention.
Tobias E. from Berlin was due to regain his freedom on 10 December: After almost two years in prison in Hungary, he had actually reached the last day of his sentence. But shortly before his release from the city prison in Budapest, he was served with a European arrest warrant, which demanded his extradition to the German authorities at the request of the Saxony Criminal Police Office. This request was approved by a Hungarian court on 4 December, reports the solidarity group for the accused in the so-called Budapest complex on its website. After being handed over to German officials on 20 December, E. was finally brought before the detention judge at the Federal Court of Justice. He ordered that his pre-trial detention has to be continued in Germany.
Tobias E. was arrested in Budapest in February 2023 after he was linked to attacks on actual or alleged right-wing extremists during anti-fascist protests on the ‘Day of Honour’. The Hungarian court initially sentenced him to three years in prison. Following a plea in court, an appeal hearing later reduced the sentence to one year and ten months, which E. has now served.
His refusal to give full evidence in a parallel trial against co-defendants caused Tobias E. further problems with the Hungarian authorities. Summoned as a witness, he refused to answer questions that could incriminate him. The court interpreted this as a lack of willingness to cooperate.
Other German anti-fascists who have been charged in Budapest in connection with the protests against the ‘Day of Honour’ are also still under pressure. The trans person Maja T., who was also accused, was extradited to Hungary in the summer. There, she is being subjected to serious prison conditions with isolation, unhygienic conditions and a lack of care, which supporters describe as ‘white torture’.
Hannah S., another German defendant in the Budapest complex, remains in pre-trial detention in the Bavarian city Nuremberg and will be charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and membership of a criminal organisation before the State Security Senate of the Regional Court in Munich from 19 February. These charges also relate to the incidents in Budapest. As ‘part of a left-wing extremist organisation’, S. is alleged to have carried out two attacks on three people who were ‘considered by the group to belong to the extreme right-wing spectrum’.
Observers see the admission of this charge as a political escalation. ‘The court seems to be deliberately exaggerating the charges in order to increase the pressure on activists,’ says Alex Schmidt from the Nuremberg solidarity group. There is a simple reason why S. will not be extradited to Budapest but, unlike Tobias E. or Maja T., will be tried in Germany: there is no extradition request from there, the Bavarian judiciary confirmed at request.
Image: Solidarity in Leverkusen (X).
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