The Trial

Hungary was the site of serial murders by a criminal gang. Over the course of one year, the murderers killed Roma children and adults. Their only aim was to victimize the Roma. The judicial hearings on this unprecedented and bloody series of murders started March, 2011 in Budapest, and ended at the 6th of August, 2013. Four men were accused by the state of committing the murderings with racist motivation. (63 gunshots, 11 Molotov-cocktails, 6 Roma killed, children among the victims, serious injuries)

The accused in the case were charged with having attacked Roma individuals with petrol bombs and guns in Galgagyörk on July 21st 2008, in Piricse on August 8th 2008, in Nyíradony on September 5th 2008, in Tarnabod on September 29th 2008, in Nagycsécs on November 3rd 2008, in Alsózsolca on December 15th 2008, in Tatárszentgyörgy on February 23rd 2009, in Tiszalök on April 22nd 2009, and in Kisléta on August 3rd 2009. One individual was fatally wounded in Kisléta, one in Tiszalök, two in Nagycsécs, and a man of 27 and his son of 5 were shot and killed as they ran from their burning house in Tatárszentgyörgy. A single mother of a 13-year-old girl was shot and killed while still in her bed at night, her daughter was found in a critical condition with 150 pellets embedded in her body.

The police spent months fruitlessly searching for the perpetrators and only later considered the ethnic aspect of these attacks. Then, following the incident in Kisléta, an award of 100 million Hungarian forints was issued for information, and the police arrested four suspects two weeks later.

The murder trial of the four men accused of the anti-Roma attacks (Árpád K., his brother István K., Zsolt P., and István Cs - named as the driver in the last two murders) took place in Budapest at the Budapest District Court. The charge described the attacks as having been carried out with racist motivation.