Hungarian court sentences German anti-fascist activist to 8 years for far-right rally assaults

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A Hungarian court on Wednesday sentenced a German anti-fascist activist to eight years in prison for taking part in assaults against participants of a far-right rally in February 2023.

Authorities allege the 25-year-old defendant, identified only as Maja T., was one of more than a dozen people who assaulted participants in an annual far-right event in Budapest known as the “Day of Honor” — one of the biggest neo-Nazi rallies in Europe which marks the failed attempt by Nazi and allied Hungarian soldiers to break out of Budapest during the Red Army’s siege of the city in 1945.

The defendant was accused of attempted aggravated bodily harm causing life-threatening injuries and assault committed as part of a criminal organization.

Maja T. was extradited from Germany 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.

Supporters of Maja T. have criticized the conditions of detention as well as the defendant’s chances for a fair trial in Hungary, where the 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. Hungary designated antifa a terrorist organization after a similar move by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Maja T. has complained about the conditions of detainment. Speaking to The Associated Press outside a hearing in Budapest last year, the defendant’s father, Wolfram Jarosch, said Maja T. had been held in “solitary confinement” and subjected to “degrading conditions.”

“The rule of law in Hungary is very, very doubtful,” Jarosch said.

Wednesday's conviction can be appealed.

Another alleged assailants 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. Hungary continues to demand that she be returned to face trial and prosecutors have sought an 11-year sentence.