Hungary: scandal over pardon in sex abuse case
Hungary's President Katalin Novák has pardoned an offender who was an accessory in a case of sexual abuse of minors at a children's home. Justice Minister Judit Varga signed off on the pardon. According to the court dealing with the case, the perpetrator attempted to bribe the victims and persuade them to make false confessions. The affair is particularly embarrassing for the ruling Fidesz party, which used child protection as a justification for its discriminatory LGBT legislation.
A malfunction in Orbán's system
Not without sarcasm, Népszava comments:
“In the long term, a closed system inevitably leads to serious mistakes ... Every last ministerial civil servant quickly learns that their career does not depend on professional performance, but on constantly paying attention to whose boots they should be licking. This is probably how it came about that someone was able to get one of the dozens of grafters in the run-down Ministry of Justice to approve the paedophile accomplice Endre K.'s plea for clemency. ... If Varga and Novák had been presented with a recipe for sponge cake, they would probably have signed it. One thing is certain: they did not have to be the guardian angels for a paedophile accomplice.”
Opposition seeking political gains
The pro-government PestiSrácok claims that critics are deliberately misrepresenting the situation:
“Is the deputy director (also) guilty? Surely yes. But he is not a paedophile, as the press and left-wing politicians are attempting to suggest. ... Katalin Novák DID NOT pardon a paedophile. She pardoned a passionate teacher who was committed to his job and was very popular among the children for whom he offered numerous free-time activities. ... One could argue [about whether Katalin Novák made a mistake], and there can be legitimate - legal and moral - arguments for both positions. But what the opposition is doing is political prostitution in its most repulsive form.”