Former Communist Official On Trial In Hungary
- 19 Mar 2014 8:00 AM
The trial has begun of a 92-year-old former communist leading official charged with war crimes during the crushing of the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. Béla Biszku has said he does not understand why he has been charged with the murder of nearly fifty people, tabloid Blikk said on Tuesday, when he was due to appear before the court.
The trial can be held thanks to a law passed by the ruling Fidesz party that states war crimes and crimes against humanity cannot lapse.
The indictment said in the immediate aftermath of the thwarted 1956 revolution Biszku was a member of the Provisional Executive Committee, a central steering body of the then newly formed Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (MSZMP).
The committee had set up a special police force which was found to have been responsible for firing shots at the public, including unarmed protesters. Biszku’s role has been qualified as a war crime for which he could face life imprisonment.
Source www.hungarymatters.hu
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