1988. augusztus (184-207. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
HWN SAIUAN (g) PCTP©m>> i ífei™ @gií Editori György Krassó » 24/D Uttle Russell Street * London, WC1A 2IIN * Tel. 01-430 2126 (írom abroad 441-430 2126) 206/1988 (E) 31st August, 1988 Gyula Kristály*s Sentence Is Slgnlficantly Reduced As a result of an investigation conducted by Borsod County fór a year Gyula Kristály was charged with "inciting the public" and was sentenced to three years prison. Hís case was concluded yesterday. The Miskolc County Cqurt significantly reduced the 61 year old pensioner from Ózd’s sentence: three years imprisonment was changed to one and a half years and his árrést was suspended fór four years. The County Court re- pealed his secondary punishment which prohibited him from participating in public affairs and decided that the more than twenty thousand forint expense of the criminal proceed- ings will be paid by the state. A declaration signed by 33 citizens which protested against the earlier sentence said that while in the "display window Hungary" of Budapest it is possible to voice home truths, in the country the "Party bosses and police chiefs use truncheons, prison and asylum to punish those who dare to utter a word". This practice was considerably shaken by the reduction of the sentence yesterday. The Borsod state security organs wanted to contrive a monster political trial out of Kristály’s leaflet distribution. The investigative measures were appalling. In the June issue of the periodical Belügyi Szemle ("Interior Heport"), which was nőt made public, Police Major László Fekete writes that experts in the fields of typography, philology, serology and handwritirtg were^drafted out fór reconnaissáncé work. They checked all the typewriter registers of Ózd and Miskolc companies, institutes and industrial units, the typewriters in Miskolc and Ózd primary and secondary schools, and in the university and all typewriter sales and repairs. They checked all the industrial units’ brigádé records, matériái concerning traffic offences and al] the complaints and appeals submitted to the town council, town management and to industrial units and companies. ’rhey conducted lots of hearings: they investigated those sentenced in 56 and later political cases, all those who had resigned from work, the Party or the unions and they visited all the sites where leaflets were found. The police looked intő more than one hundred thousand samples of hand and type writing in Ózd alone. Police Major Fekete writes that in order to conduct the case and "taking intő account its significance a reconnaissance investigating group of twenty people was forrned" to establish special brigades and to issue daily instructions, "in addition to the staff of the County state security organs which was reinforced by County Police Headquarters and the criminal staff of the Ózd Police Station". The reál cause of the damage was nőt Kristály bút the police: the budget of this investigation came to several millión forints, all the money necessary to catch the old worker was available yet the budget fór welfare, health and research is drastically reduced. Gertrude Hennefeld, a delegate from Amnesty International, was there to observe the trial, as was Vladimir Seks a Yugoslav lawyer who had been asked to take part by the Vienna based International Helsinki Alliance. In his speech the defense lawyer stressed the extenuating circumstances; the age of the accused, his clean record, his four children and his excellent work record which spans 43 years, he alsó reférred to the change in the Hungárián political situation, saying that today even sharp criticism is viewed in a different light. The representative fór the Borsod County District Attomey’s Office unexpectedly withdrew his proposals drafted in the previous sufcmission, in which the sentence was upheld, and proposed that the sentence be reduced. The judge asked the accused to express his political opinions at the legal forums formed fór this purpose in future. Subscribers can use or quote the Hungárián Octobor nowslrtters In totál or in detail as long as th«* source is acknowlcdged. j f
