Gyurcsány criticised for attack on judges

A pro-government columnist is outraged by the remarks of the leader of the Democratic Coalition about judges.

In a Facebook post, Ferenc Gyurcsány wrote that the names of judges who issue politically biased verdicts ’should be remembered’ as they should be questioned as witnesses in future proceedings against the regime. The Kúria (the Supreme Court), the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, the National Office of the Judiciary and the National Judicial Council protested against threats against judges.

In Magyar Nemzet, Tamás Pilhál accuses the DK leader of lying when he suggests that ‘the regime wants former Momentum leader András Fekete Győr in prison’. Fekete Győr was actually sentenced to a suspended one-year prison term, he remarks (the case is under appeal). He finds nothing political in the verdict as during a demonstration six years ago, Fekete Győr threw a smoke bomb at the police cordon protecting the building of Parliament. Pilhál also dismisses Gyurcsány’s opinion on another case in the same year when a group of opposition deputies were expelled from the public TV building and DK MP László Varju clashed with the security staff. That verdict is expected shortly. In the first instance, Mr Varju was fined, he remarks. Pilhál condemns Gyurcsány’s words as reckless threats directed against judges.

In her Telex report on the controversy, Orsolya Kaiser remarks that when two leading members of the National Judicial Council paid a visit to the US ambassador, the pro-government press harshly criticised them, and judge Tamás Matusik complained that they were being ‘practically executed in public’.

Tags: Fekete-Győr, Gyurcsány, judiciary