December 4th, 2012 Hearing: The Tenth Defendant’s Emotional Testimony

On Tuesday, December 4^th, 2012 the trial of the Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV) once more listened to the testimony of Ottó Lelovics, the fifth defendant in the trial of 15 BKV associates.  Lelovics, the former PR and communication consultant to BKV’s former political supervisor, Miklós Hagyó, urged the counsel in Kecsemét, Hungary to summon as a witness Dávid Vitézy.  Mr. Vitézy is the CEO for BKK, the Center for Budapest Transportation, which is the parent organization to BKV.

This is a particularly interesting turn of events since many of the defendants, especially Miklós Hagyó who is the primary defendant, has accused the prosecution of omitting from the case file important witnesses. 

The December 4^th hearing also observed the testimony of Ágnes Vitéz, the tenth defendant in the trial.  Ms. Vitéz, who had worked at BKV since 1994 but had been promoted to head of marketing in 2004, denied any wrongdoing while she was employed by the public transportation company.  Vitéz purportedly contributed to the criminal organization, whose alleged leader was Miklós Hagyó, by fulfilling “unnecessary” marketing contracts with companies such as Well Advertising and PR Agency Ltd.

Well Advertising was hired by BKV in March of 2006 to do public relations for one of the tram networks.  Then in December 2006 Well was contracted to organize a year-end retail event.   

 The prosecution claims that through these contracts and many others Vitéz caused BKV nearly 215 million forints in damage (approximately 978,000 USD at time of writing [ATW]).

During the hearing Vitéz maintained her statements from the interrogation while denying the accuracy of the information in the indictment.  According to her opinion, the creation and lack of expert advice on the contracts listed throughout the indictment is “unprofessional.”

It was only after ten minutes of addressing the court that Vitéz became overwhelmed with emotions.  Unable to hold back sobs, Judge Ibolya Hadnagy read the remainder of the written testimony.

Through the judge, Vitéz mentioned that she is very proud of her work at BKV.  She also mentioned that she never had the ability to solely sign off on contracts.  That is, a co-signer was always necessary to effectuate a contract.

Like many of her defendant associates, Vitéz stated that she believed the suspects were being tried because of political motivations.  As her supporting evidence, she stated that every year BKV has produced calendars for the employees.  According to her, however, that was a crime in the year of 2009.  Likewise she mentioned that the BKV website was chosen as the “best website of the year” in Budapest, along with the tram lines 4 and 6 (the Combino) receiving first place in a titled international competition. 

“The marketing wasn’t just needed, but it was mandatory,” proclaimed the defendant, referring to the expectations of upper management.


Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/december-4th-2012-hearing-the-tenth-defendants-emotional-testimony/