Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, in a letter to United Nations Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain, expressed “astonishment and shock” over her “defence of a terrorist”.
Szijjártó said it was “shocking” that the rapporteur had played the role of “defence lawyer for a terrorist who led an attack against Hungarian police who were protecting Hungary’s borders”.
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Szijjártó wrote in response to a letter in which Ni Aolain had said that Hungary had harmed the rights of Ahmed H, a Syrian national sentenced in Hungary on terrorism charges after a migrant riot at Hungary’s southern borders in 2015. She criticised both Hungary’s laws and the proceedings, saying the defendant was not a terrorist and his human rights had been violated.
In his response, Szijjártó asked whether it was “normal to cross the border shouting into a loudhailer, inciting an attack and throwing rocks at border police”.
He also asked if she “really means to launch a procedure against a country protecting its borders and the security of its citizens over the sentencing of a terrorist”.
“It is shameful that you spend members’ payments, including funds from Hungary’s taxpayers, to encourage terrorists to violate the borders of sovereign countries and to attack the police,” Szijjártó wrote.
In the featured photo: Péter Szijjártó. Photo by Mitko Sztojcsev/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade