The Debrecen Court of Appeal upheld the sentence pronounced on the prime accused by the court of first instance. If captured, Róbert Magyar will be sent to prison for life.
The court aggravated the first-instance verdict for several members of the “black army” who were found guilty in blackmailing, fraud, fire arms abuse, attempted murder and other crimes. The sentence of two defendants became final on the first instance already. The Court of Appeal upheld the first-instance verdict in the case of 14 defendants, and aggravated those of 13 defendants, adding 2-3 years to the time to be spent in prison. In one case, the jury mitigated the first-instance verdict.
Róbert Magyar escaped from house arrest in January 2011 and his whereabouts has been unknown since then. About two weeks ago, he sent a letter to the court in which he claimed that his companions had testified against him for selfish reasons and that they hadn’t told the jury the truth about the organization. He didn’t write about his whereabouts but he gave a reason for his escape: he believed the court was biased against him and he was afraid of getting a severe punishment. The Attorney General of Appeal indicated he wouldn’t modify his pleading because of the letter.
Source: MTI
Photo: Zsolt Czeglédi
