Judges appeal to police over "official" protest website

Top judges in the Municipal Court have asked police, the prosecutor's office and the National Security Office to act after demonstrators in Kossuth tér refused to remove the names of judges who convicted several people for their part in last month's riots from their www.kossuthter.hu their website .

Human rights body the Helsinki Committee has objected to some of the convictions, saying that police arrested people at random merely for being on the scene of the riots. The Municipal Court has annulled some convictions handed down by lower courts.

Leaders of the Hungarian National Committee 2006, organisers of the 24-hour protest in Kossuth tér, said they are only indirectly linked to the website. The Committee decided on Monday to offer space for union protests in Kossuth tér.

Meanwhile, the demonstrators said they will send a letter to President László Sólyom to complain about what they call the "intolerable procedure" adopted by the National Security Office. They complain that the Office has threatened demonstrators "committed to the nation" in an antidemocratic way. The Office replied that it has only warned that those who peacefully demonstrate at the scene of "violent acts" could be exposed to danger.

The above story is just one of more than two dozen published today by Hungary Around the Clock, the most comprehensive source of daily English-language news about Hungary. For a free trial of HATC, click here. Hungarian news sources include Népszabadság; Magyar Hírlap; Világgazdaság; Napi Gazdaság; Magyar Nemzet; Népszava; Kossuth Rádió news and Hungarian television's nightly news broadcast.

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