LEGAL ATTACK AGAINST HUNGARIAN COMMUNISTS CONTINUES

(The following article is from the March 1-15, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

The Hungarian Communist Workers' Party (HCWP) reports that the state attack against the party's leadership is continuing.

     As reported in the Oct. 1-15, 2007 People's Voice, the government's legal actions come in the wake of the HCWP's 2005 congress, which expelled its former vice-president Attila Vajnai for his support of the government's neoliberal policies. Vajnai challenged his expulsion in a Budapest court, which ordered his reinstatement, in a blatant case of interference in the HCWP's internal affairs. The HCWP leadership characterized the court decision as a political judgement, and a form of revenge against the Party for its role in organizing a successful public referendum against the privatisation of hospitals.

     Last fall, Gyula Thurmer (President of the HCWP), Magda Karacs and Janos Vajda (vice-presidents), Peter Szekely, Laszlo Kerezsi, Sandor Urban, and Pal Kollat (current and former members of the HCWP presidium) were all charged with "public libel" for calling the decision of the Budapest Court a "political sentence."

     On Nov. 6, the City Court in Szekesfehervar sentenced all seven communist leaders to two-year suspended sentences. This means that if they commit any crime during the coming two years, they would go to prison. After the HCWP appealed to a higher court, the public prosecutor asked the County Court to confirm the sentence of the City Court. This hearing will take place on March 11 in Szekesfehervar.

     Many communist and other left parties, as well as a large number of European and Czech MPs and senators, have expressed their solidarity with the Hungarian communists.

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint13/14_LEGAL_ATTACK_AGAINST_HUNGARIAN_COMMUNISTS_CONTINUES.html