November 22nd Hearing: Where There Political Motivations Behind the Accusations?

On Thursday, November 22^nd, 2012 the BKV trial continued in the Kecskemét Tribunal.  Thus far in the case, which has seen the investigation and trial of 15 suspects all of whom were associated with the Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV), the court has observed the testimonies of the first nine defendants.

On Tuesday, November 20^th, the ninth suspect, Tibor Zelenák who was BKV’s former director of public relations, provided his testimony.  Zelenák’s story sounded very similar to that of other defendants: innocent of all charges and his previously stated incriminations during 2010 interrogations were made out of fear from harsh pretrial treatment. 

According to the former director’s statements on November 20^th, he was provoked into accusing the likes of Miklós Hagyó, the primary defendant, by the interrogators, who had allegedly told Zelenák that in exchange for formal accusatory statements he could leave the interrogation and avoid pretrial detention.  The last of which did not go to plan.  Zelenák spent nearly two months in pretrial incarceration in 2010 on the preventative basis of fleeing the country.

During Thursdays hearing Miklós Hagyó, the former deputy mayor of Budapest who was the political supervisor of BKV from 2006 to 2010, supported Zelenák’s statements from earlier that week.  Hagyó also commented on the circumstances of the interrogation and the pretrial detention when he asserted that Zelenák’s rights were “sorely violated” because the news aired his arrest before Zelenák knew the process was going to take place.  Of course, that fact has many implications about the legitimacy of the process which the suspect endured.  Like Hagyó, Zelenák was restricted from contacting his family during the 51 days he was subjected to pretrial detention. 

Atilla Antal, the former CEO of BKV and the third defendant in the trial, stated that he agreed with Tuesday’s testimony from Zelenák.  He also noted that, “we just did our jobs…we achieved serious results, but now after years, some (people) say about our work that we committed crimes.”  He added: “We gave and received orders; those were our jobs…sure we made wrong decisions, but none of thought that those wrong decisions warranted jail or humiliation.  What we did at BKV still works to this day, because no one has been able to do it better.”

Antal also suggested that he noticed his name was in the computer registry of the police before he was arrested.  He asked, perhaps rhetorically, “But how did we become a criminal organization?” Answering his own question, he asserted, “[Tibor] maybe found the answer which I couldn’t.  The prosecution needed three to four people, who didn’t really know each other, and through them they would provide [evidential] support for their theories.”


Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/november-22nd-hearing-where-there-political-motivations-behind-the-accusations/