Maja T. is accused of ‘attempted murder’ for allegedly attacking neo-Nazis in Budapest. At the start of the trial, the anti-fascist rejected a deal to reduce her prison sentence. Their father criticises blackmail.
Jan Theurich, Matthias Monroy
The trial against Maja T. from the German city of Jena began in Budapest on Friday. Like the Italian Ilaria Salis, who was charged with the same offences at the end of 2023, T., who describes themself as non-binary, was shackled hand and foot and led into the courtroom on a leash, accompanied by masked and armed police officers. This kind of degrading display triggered nationwide protests in Italy last year and led to phone calls between high-ranking members of the government and their Hungarian counterparts. Salis, who successfully ran for the European Parliament from prison, was finally released provisionally last June.
On Friday, the German Foreign Office also criticised the ‘strange presentation in court’ in a post on X and pointed out ‘that the extradition of Maja T. to Hungary was unlawful’. The statement refers to the Federal Constitutional Court, which recently judged the rendition to be a ‘profound encroachment on fundamental rights’. According to the judges in Karlsruhe, this violation of rights is continuing.
However, the Saxon ‘Soko Linx’ created facts with the summary extradition of T. last June. The German judiciary has no means of demanding or even enforcing a return. As in the case of Ilaria Salis, this would be the task of the German government, which could use diplomatic channels to obtain a reprieve with house arrest in Hungary or even a transfer to Germany. A similar arrangement was made for another defendant in the Budapest complex: Anna M., who was arrested in Budapest after the ‘Day of Honour’, was allowed to return to Germany and is being tried in absentia in Hungary.
The defendants in the Budapest case are accused of attacking actual or alleged participants in the ‘Day of Honour’ in February 2023 and also using telescopic batons. The event, which has been held since 1997 and features right-wing rock concerts and nationalist rallies, commemorates tens of thousands of Wehrmacht soldiers, members of the SS and Hungarian soldiers who attempted to flee from encirclement by the Red Army in 1944. Every year, hundreds of neo-Nazis in uniform take part in a 60-kilometre night walk.
Nine people are said to have been injured in the attacks, four of them seriously. The investigation led to the identification of 18 suspects, some of whom are also being prosecuted in Germany. The charges include forming a criminal organisation and jointly committing grievous bodily harm. Maja T. is accused of participating in two offences and causing broken bones in the victims’ heads and lacerations, thereby causing their deaths. In addition, the men were beaten with ‘tools suitable for extinguishing life’.
Initially, two Polish tourists are said to have been attacked by the group at their home address in Budapest. Johann G., who was arrested in Germany in November, allegedly took the lead. Because one of the men defended himself with irritant gas, the attack was broken off prematurely. The following day, Maja T. is said to have met up with four other people near a ‘right-wing extremist concert’. There, the group attacked two people – including Laszlo Dudag, singer of relevant right-wing extremist bands. Dudag is demanding around €25,000 in compensation in a civil lawsuit, his companion around €5,000.
According to information from ‘nd’, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) met with T.’s family and supporters in January. So far, the Federal Foreign Office has only provided support in the matter via the German embassy in Budapest. According to a spokeswoman, the case was ‘intensively supervised’ there. In the meantime, Minister of State Anna Lührmann has also spoken to the Hungarian government about the conditions of detention. The German ambassador to Hungary is said to have held several high-level talks on the subject with the Hungarian government, ‘nd’ has learnt.
These efforts were clearly not successful. Maja T. read out a trial statement in court on Friday: ‘For eight months, I have been confronted with detention conditions that violate Hungary’s assurances,’ it says. Neither the minimum standards of the Council of Europe for the humane treatment of prisoners nor the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules’ of the United Nations, which were adopted with a similar objective, are being observed. ‘This is done by confronting me with continuous long-term solitary confinement (i.e. less than 30 minutes of human contact per day) – for over 200 days,’ T. explained in court.
In Budapest prison, ‘humiliating and degrading security measures are imposed for which there is still no justification’. T. also said in the statement that they had been ‘forced by several dozen people’ to undress completely in front of them. They was not allowed to study or work in pre-trial detention and lacked sufficient books, daylight and healthy food. ‘I’m standing here today and I’m already suffering mental and physical damage. My eyesight is failing and my body is exhausted […]. What remains are bedbugs and cockroaches as well as the light from the hourly checks that rob me of sleep at night.’
Around 30 supporters from Hungary, Austria, Germany and France demonstrated in front of the Budapest Criminal Court on Friday in favour of the release of Maja T. Their father Wolfram Jarosch attested to Hungary’s lack of rule of law and described the solitary confinement as torture.
At the first trial date, the question was whether T. would confess to the charges. There was no hearing of evidence at this preliminary hearing. The Public Prosecutor’s Office offered a sentence of 14 years in prison under aggravated prison conditions and a ten-year entry ban to Hungary. In addition, T. would have to waive his right to a trial if he accepted the deal. If she does not accept it, they face up to 24 years in prison.
Towards the end of the hearing, the Public Prosecutor’s Office responded to Maja T.’s statement. In it, they said that man had created ‘the Shoah and more atrocities than the sky gives us stars’, ‘but at the same time never lost hope of a peaceful tomorrow’. The Prosecutor replied that the visitors to the ‘Day of Honour’ would probably also have wished for a ‘peaceful tomorrow’.
Sven Richwin, T’s German lawyer, confirmed his client’s statement to ‘nd’ that they was only aware of a fraction of the trial files. Many prosecution documents were either not provided to the defence or only in Hungarian. According to Richwin, complaints about this met with little interest from the court. Maja T.’s Hungarian lawyer, Tamás Bajáky, tried to obtain a reprieve: “I asked the court to grant house arrest,” Bajáky told “nd”. House arrest is ‘a completely normal thing in Hungary’. The request was rejected and the lawyer appealed against it.
‘Unfortunately, the judge more or less parroted what the prosecutor said,’ criticised Maja’s father. A fair trial can therefore hardly be expected. In addition, pre-trial detention in Hungary can last up to three years. On Friday, Jarosch was not allowed to hug his child. ‘It’s a rollercoaster of emotions: on the one hand, I admire Maja for standing up, speaking in front of people and revealing her innermost feelings. On the other hand, I can see how my child is suffering in solitary confinement – and still tries to comfort me instead of herself,’ he explained in an interview with “nd”.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Maja T. had to follow the trial with a translator and remained on a leash during the trial (Dunya Collective).
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