Wednesday was Ahmed H.’s final hearing. Accused for ‘terrorism and other crimes’, after a series of extremely biased trial hearings and without any evidence he was sentenced to 10 years of prison and expulsion from Hungary. 10 years of prison, for talking to a megaphone and throwing 3 stones, or as we should say more accurately after the trails, for being Muslim and a migrant.
The protests at Röszke border crossing
Ahmed was arrested a bit more than a year ago, shortly after the 15th of September 2015, when the Hungarian government closed its border with Serbia. During the night, irregular border crossing into Hungary became a criminal offence. Hundreds of people who wanted to move on to find international protection were blocked at the Röszke–Horgos border crossing without legal information and extremely limited support. Some people started to protest to move on. The situation got increasingly tense until it escalated and police started using tear gas and water cannons and protesters were throwing stones. Ahmed H., was among those who communicated with a megaphone between the crowd of protestors and the police, tried to calm both sides down and later also started throwing stones. When the counter-terrorist police force attacked the waiting crowd, ten people of the crowd - among them Ahmed’s parents, with whom he was travelling to support them on their way to Germany to seek international protection and medical help - were arbitrarily singled out and arrested in the police operation, as they were among those who could not leave quickly enough due to their age and health problems. These ten people were brought to court and accused of “participation in a mass riot” and “border violation”. Ahmed was brutally arrested later at a train station and imprisoned, waiting more than a year for his verdict.
RSS Feed