1987. február (7-13. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

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24/D little Rut&clf Street, LÓN D 0 N, WC.i - Tel. 01-4*0 zi 26 ■ G. Kr<x ssé

9/1987 /B/ 7th February, 1987

Sándor Racz cannot travel abroad

The 55 year old toolmaker, Sándor Rácz, was in 1956 - in the aftermath of the Soviet Army intervention on November the 4th - chairman of the Greater Budapest Central Workers' Council. On the llth December, 1956, he was invited in the Parliament building fór negotiations, bút there he was arrested and later sentenced fór life. He'd been released in the course of the 1963 amnesty and has been working as a manual worker ever since.

In the autumn 1986 Sándor Racz was invited by the American Trade-Union Federation AFL-CIO to visit the USA. The Hungárián Ministry of Interior re- jected Racz's passport application at the end of January on the grounds of ha- ving a criminal pást. (Sándor Racz has never ever held a passport valid fór a journey to the West.) Racz appealed against this decision.

This decision alsó sheds light on the little known fact that the victims of the retaliations following the suppression of the revolution, who have been im- prisoned and later released in the 1960s, still live as second-rate citizens in their country, sufx'ering from negative discrimination in several aspects. This discrimination prevails in many forms, bút now we describe only two of them incorporated in provisions of law.

1. Paragraph 109 of the enacting clause of the II. Social Insurance Act 1975 (No. I7/1975/VI. 14/ MT) States that persons sentenced fór five years or longer terms fór political crimes lose all their working years preceding the date of their crime in respect of their right to pension. This regulation doesn't apply to common criminals and stands in contradiction with paragraph 56 of the II. Act 1975, which permits unconditionally the consideration of the time spent in work even in the case of a break in the working activity longer than five years, provided that the person in question has been working fór at least five years after the break. The date of the issue of the decree (1975) proves beyond doubt that the discrimination is definitely aimed against the 1956 convicts.

2. The decree on passport matters (No. 53/ 1978/ XI.10/ MT) currently in effect, has expanded the sphere of discrimination against those with a criminal pást even to the field of travelling abroad. According to point l/a. of paragraph 7 of the decree "The right to travel abroad can be denied to those prose- cuted or having a criminal pást". The wording of the decree is in conditional