Hungarian court reduces sentence for German anti-fascist convicted in far-right rally assaults

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- A Hungarian appeals court on Wednesday reduced the sentence of a German anti-fascist activist from eight to seven years in prison for taking part in assaults against participants of a far-right rally in Budapest in February 2023.

The new and final sentence for the defendant, identified by Hungarian authorities only as Maja T., came after a lower court issued the eight-year sentence at a hearing in February. Both the prosecution and the defense appealed that verdict, with the prosecution requesting 14 years and the defense pushing for acquittal.

Authorities say Maja T. was one of more than a dozen activists who assaulted participants at an annual far-right event in Budapest known as the “Day of Honor” — one of the biggest neo-Nazi rallies in Europe.

Prosecutors said Maja T. and other perpetrators “planned to pursue their ideological struggle against supporters of the extremist right,” and to “assault selected victims with various instruments capable of causing death.”

A group of the defendant's supporters gathered outside the court in central Budapest on Wednesday, waving banners and demanding the defendant's release. Upon entering the courtroom, Maja T. smiled at other supporters who had gathered inside for the hearing.

In reducing the sentence, the judge said Maja T. should be considered an accomplice rather than a perpetrator in one count of the charges, and should not be considered a member of a criminal organization as originally charged.

Maja T.'s father, Wolfram Jarosch, told The Associated Press that even though the verdict was more favorable than the lower court's decision, “I am personally very disappointed.”

“I think Maja took the news very calmly, but I think it’s also very depressing for Maja. Seven years is an extremely long time,” Jarosch said.

After being arrested by German authorities in Berlin, Germany, Maja T. was extradited to Hungary in December 2024. Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled last year that the extradition was unlawful because it could not be guaranteed that the defendant would not be subject to inhumane or degrading treatment in Hungarian custody.

On Wednesday, Jarosch said Maja T. had been subject to “very undignified detention” including solitary confinement, which he said did not comply with European human rights standards. Hungarian authorities and the Hungarian Prison Service have denied such claims.

Other supporters of Maja T. have cast doubt on the defendant’s chances for a fair trial in Hungary, where former right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last year designated antifa as a terrorist organization.

Antifa, an umbrella term for loosely affiliated far-left activists and groups that resist fascism, fascists and neo-Nazis, resembles more an ideology than an organization, though some have embraced militant tactics.

Jarosch said that while he condemns the violence that occurred in Budapest, he considers anti-fascist action "absolutely important and necessary, engagement against authoritarian and fascist tendencies such as those we unfortunately also see in Germany with the AfD” — a reference to the far-right party Alternative for Germany.

Another alleged assailant in the 2023 attacks, Italian anti-fascist activist Ilaria Salis, was jailed in Hungary for over a year following the assaults, resulting in a diplomatic dispute between Rome and Budapest over her treatment in detention.

Salis was released to house arrest in May 2024 and released a month later after she gained legal immunity by winning a seat in the European Parliament. Hungarian prosecutors have sought an 11-year sentence for Salis, and while Hungary's previous government asked the European Parliament to suspend her parliamentary immunity, it refused.