1987. április (33-52. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2
ni 24/D LittU Rutfcell Street , L 0 N D 0 N , WO. { ■ Ttl.Ol~4AO ti it • G. Krasai 47/1987 M 27th April, 1987 Zsolt Keszthelyi: Three Years Imprisonment The 23 years old Zsolt Keszthelyi already arrested 25 February in Budapest fór objection to military service, was brought to court and sentenced after more than two month in the morning of the 27th April. It was an unusual proce- dure fór in the Hungárián judicial practice objectors to military service are normally brought to court and sentenced within 6 days, bút even the case of Zsolt Keszthelyi was unusual, because in contrast with the objectors up to now, he hasn't been motivated by religious conviction bút stated that he was nőt willing to serve in an army which is nőt subject to control by a democratically elected govemment, As a result of this the trial of Keszthelyi claimed particular attention in advance even abroad. A series of news items and articles dealt with the matter; at the beginning of April it came to solidarity demonstrations in Poland demanding the release of Keszthelyi, while at the trial 27 April a representative of Amnesty International alsó made his apperance. Fürther interest in the criminal proceeding was aroused by the fact that the UNO Committee dealing with humán rights stated just the last month in Geneva that objection to military service constitutes part of the freedom of conscience and called upon every country to assure the practice of this right. A great many people wanted to know whether the widely proclaimed liberalism of the system in Hungary will be able to extend as far as the consideration of this UNO-resolution. There came the answer. Keszthelyi had a particularly severe punishment inflicted on him, more severe than other objectors of the previous years who, as a rule, were sentenced fór terms near two and half years to be served in "jail". Although the sentences sharpened recently, the court levied the most severe punishment of recent times on Keszthelyi by sentencing him fór three years to be served in "prison", which in the Hungárián terminology is a penal institution with harder regulation. Albeit even the prosecutor, Dr István Tóth who has been acting as prosecutor in cases of objectors in the course of many years, stated that he is nőt willing to deal with the political aspect of the case, the judge of the military court, Colonel Hildebrand, pondered the political statements of the defendant as an aggravating circumstance in the vindication of the sentence. Other circumstances of the trial alsó didn't point at the "openness"of the system in Hungary. Even after a stormy dispute lasting half an hour only nine hearers were let in at the allegedly public trial and even among them there were four strangers, neither relatives nor friends of Zsolt Keszthelyi.Károly Kiszely, who in the years pást contributed on behalf of the objectors perhaps more than anybody else, was removed from the courtroom by two soldiers who dragged him on the ground. The correspondent of the BBC, Nick Thorpe, and the representative of Amnesty International were nőt allowed to attend the trial; the latter only managed to get a permission from the Ministry of Justice two hours later and thus gain admittance to the trial just when the sentence was declared. During 13u
