The annual Nazi show of honour is taking place again this weekend in Budapest. After this event two years ago, 18 antifas are alleged to have committed bodily harm. Three of those who went underground are still wanted from Hungary.
The ‘Day of Honour’ will take place again in Budapest next Sunday: An annual event with right-wing music concerts and nationalist rallies, which since 1997 has commemorated tens of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers, members of the SS and Hungarian soldiers who tried to escape encirclement by the Red Army in 1944 and were crushed in the attempt. It is probably the largest networking meeting of the European neo-Nazi scene. The highlight is a 60-kilometre night hike; hundreds of right-wingers, particularly from Germany, take part in the event in historical uniforms or scene clothing. Despite official bans, swastika flags, CDs and Nazi memorabilia are displayed and sold to ‘cultivate tradition’.
In February 2023, antifas beat up actual or alleged participants of the ‘Day of Honour’ and, according to the Budapest police, also used striking tools. Nine people were injured, four of them seriously. The Hungarian investigation led to the identification of 18 suspects, some of whom are also being prosecuted in Germany. The Public Prosecutor’s Offices charge the suspects with forming a criminal organisation and jointly committing grievous bodily harm.
Three of them were arrested immediately after the incidents in Budapest, and a judgement has already been passed in the case of Tobias E. – but after his release he is now in German custody. The German Anna M. and the Italian Ilaria Salis, now a Member of the European Parliament and therefore probably the best-known of the defendants in the so-called Budapest complex, are still being tried. However, her trial has been temporarily suspended and Hungary has applied for her immunity to be waived.
In the summer, Maja T. was transferred from the German city Dresden to Budapest under legally controversial circumstances – their lawyers have lodged a constitutional appeal against a corresponding decision by the Berlin Court of Appeal, a judgement on which will be announced this Thursday.
Maja’s trial in Budapest will start on 21 February with a hearing in which the authorities will make an offer for a confession and subsequent summary trial – in return, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the court will offer a reduced sentence of eight years. After this first hearing, a decision will also be made on a possible consolidation with the criminal proceedings already underway.
Hanna S., who is in custody in the German city Nuremberg, will not be extradited to Budapest. Her trial for the offences committed in Hungary is due to begin on 19 February at the Higher Regional Court in Munich, with 24 trial days scheduled.
Gabriele Marchesi was also temporarily arrested in Milan following an EU arrest warrant from Budapest, but the Public Prosecutor in charge refused to extradite him, citing the prison conditions in Hungary – he is now being tried in absentia.
The Albanian known as ‘Gino’, who lived in Italy for a long time and was arrested in Paris, is also currently awaiting such a decision. The French judiciary has requested more detailed information from Hungary about the impending charges; this 15-day deadline expires this week and there is to be a further hearing on 12 February.
A fortnight ago, six wanted German nationals handed themselves in to the authorities. Following an arrest warrant issued by the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), they are now being held in various prisons awaiting a decision on their extradition – or a trial in Germany, as they had previously demanded.
Zaid A., a Syrian recognised by Germany as a refugee, is also being held in pre-trial detention at the behest of Hungary. Like legal experts, his lawyer sees legal obstacles to prosecution in Hungary, particularly with regard to jurisdiction and the applicability of German criminal law. This is because the alleged criminal organisation that the Antifas are accused of forming is said to have been founded in Germany. The Italian Public Prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser also criticises the disproportion between the offence and the threatened punishment as well as doubts about the rule of law in the proceedings: in Hungary, the defendants face up to 24 years in prison.
The Budapest complex can also include the arrest of Johann G., who the authorities describe as a confidant of Lina E. – she was declared the mastermind of a criminal organisation along with two other people in the so-called Antifa East trial, and her appeal proceedings will take place at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on Thursday. G. will not be transferred there for offences allegedly committed in Hungary – at least for the time being; he is to be tried for criminal offences in Germany at the request of the Thuringia Public Prosecutor General’s Office.
A week ago, the police in Budapest announced their preparations for the upcoming ‘Day of Honour’ and emphasised that they would ensure public safety as well as protect the neo-Nazis’ right to assemble, which they described as “peaceful”. As every year, there will be counter-protests, organised primarily by Antifa associations from Austria and Germany.
At the press conference last Monday, the Hungarian Public Prosecutor’s Office also provided information on the investigations into the ‘Budapest Complex’. Two named suspects from Germany who have gone into hiding and one from Italy are still being sought from Hungary.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Spontaneous solidarity action for the people in hiding and arrested in the Budapest complex on Saturday in Berlin-Kreuzberg (Indymedia).
