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Several anti-fascists are currently facing extradition to Hungary. A country that has been criticised by human rights organisations for years and has repeatedly been reprimanded for its politically biased justice system. We want to prevent this with the campaign “#NOEXTRADITION – No extradition of anti-fascists”.
The background to the impending extradition are investigations against several anti-fascists accused of being involved in confrontations with neo-Nazis in Budapest in February 2023. The so-called “Day of Honour”, a major international gathering of neo-Nazis, takes place there every year. The event serves as a historically revisionist commemoration of an attempted escape by SS troops and Wehrmacht soldiers shortly before the liberation of Budapest by the Red Army.
Maja was arrested in December 2023 in the context of this investigation and is currently being held in pre-trial detention. Following a request for extradition by the Hungarian judicial authorities, proceedings were initiated by the Berlin Court of Appeal, where a decision on extradition is due in the coming weeks. Simultaneously, Gabriele is under house arrest in Milan awaiting a decision on his extradition. In the meantime, the authorities are searching for at least twelve other young people who could face the same scenario.
No fair trial
Hungary is no longer considered a fully-fledged democracy, even by the EU Parliament, but rather an “electoral autocracy” that systematically and deliberately undermines the agreed fundamental values, massively restricts freedom of expression and the press, eliminates democratic control bodies and criminalises political opponents. In 2022, the EU froze billions in payments to Hungary because the country failed to comply to agreed rule of law reforms. Many members of the European Parliament are also calling for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to be stripped of his voting rights in the Council because, despite recent reforms, Hungary does not fulfil European standards in terms of the independence of its judiciary.
Both Amnesty International and the European Court of Human Rights have criticised the increased restriction of judicial independence in Hungary. The right-wing populist Hungarian government under Viktor Orbán has repeatedly intimidated unpopular judges and public prosecutors with disciplinary sanctions and suspensions. One example which highlights the country’s political one-sidedness is the pardoning of a convicted right-wing terrorist by the Hungarian president last year. Furthermore, even the organisers of the neo-Nazi “Day of Honour” event receive financial support from the government to promote tourism.
Reporters Without Borders also criticises a media landscape under government control. Following the enactment of a new media law in 2010, large parts of the television and radio landscape were centralised. A government-appointed media authority created shortly afterwards makes it possible to control and penalise the media. As a result, critical and investigative journalism is virtually non-existent in Hungary and the major daily newspapers and TV stations merely repeat state narratives. As a result, the lack of independent reporting and state control means that reporting has a strong right-wing conservative bias.
In view of the above facts and the political situation in Hungary, we must assume that the anti-fascists concerned cannot expect an independent trial in the event of extradition.
Excessive sentences and inhumane prison conditions
Two anti-fascists were already imprisoned in Budapest in February 2023 as a result of the same investigation. Now they are to be tried in Hungary starting at the end of January 2024. In the case of the imprisoned Italian anti-fascist Ilaria, the public prosecutor’s office is currently demanding a prison sentence of up to 16 years. If Maja or other anti-fascists are extradited, they face a sentence of up to 24 years in prison and pre-trial detention, which can be extended almost indefinitely. The expected prison sentences are therefore significantly higher than in Germany, with inhumane conditions. Human rights organisations such as the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights have already drawn attention to the catastrophic conditions in Hungarian prisons in the past.
The anti-fascists Tobi and Ilaria, who have already been imprisoned in Hungary, also report inhumane living conditions and harassment. For the first six months, Ilaria was only allowed to communicate with her lawyer and had no contact with relatives. In an 18-page letter, she reported being locked up for 23 hours in a cell measuring just three and a half square metres, interrogations without a defence lawyer or interpreter, malnutrition and catastrophic hygiene conditions. In addition to poor ventilation in summer and freezing temperatures in winter, the cells are infestated with mice, cockroaches and bedbugs.
If extradition is granted, Maja, Gabriele and all others concerned could face a double-digit prison sentence in inhumane conditions and pre-trial detention over 1000 kilometres away from family and friends.
Prejudice against the accused
From the very beginning, the Hungarian authorities’ investigation into the accused anti-fascists was accompanied by media coverage in major Hungarian daily newspapers, which portrayed the participants in the events surrounding the “Day of Honour” as simple tourists and the accused as brutal perpetrators of violence.
While the case of the imprisoned anti-fascist Ilaria is now the subject of a great deal of critical publicity in Italy, in Germany the Hungarian media’s one-sided coverage of the trial complex has so far not been scrutinised and in some cases has been adopted word for word.
In addition to the adoption of right-wing narratives, the accused have been heavily prejudged. Representatives of Germany’s national security authorities also repeatedly emphasised the young anti-fascists’ supposed dangerousness in interviews.
All of this is happening at a time when fascists are gaining ground across Europe, while a fascist party could soon return to parliament with a majority in Germany and is organising with well-connected neo-Nazis to plan the deportation of large sections of the population. It must once again be recognised how important anti-fascism should be in our society. Such a criminalisation of anti-fascists against the backdrop of a strengthening new right, whose content is becoming more and more acceptable, disguises the real threat to society.
We therefore demand:
- A clear rejection of the extradition of the accused to Hungary – whether from Germany or Italy!
- The immediate return of those detained there to their home countries!
- The chance of a fair trial for all those affected!