Racist Petra Laszlo has her conviction quashed

No doubt Far Right groups across Eastern Europe will be celebrating the news that former news reporter from Hungary who was convicted of assaulting a Syrian refugee carrying his child, had her conviction quashed by the court of appeal in Hungary.

Petra László caused outcry in September 2015 when she tripped Osama Abdul Mohsen who was running with his son Zaid in his arms, and kicked another child near the town of Roszke, close to the border with Serbia.

The Supreme Court deemed that László’s act, “while morally incorrect and illicit, was a disruption, not vandalism”.

The camerawoman, who was fired over her actions, had been working for N1TV, an internet-based television station close to Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party.

In her feeble excuse for her despicable actions she said, “I turned and saw several hundred people charging toward me, it was quite incredibly frightening,”

What’s worrying about this case is that across Europe the last sanctuaries for justice - the high Courts- are siding with the xenophobes and bigots, which in effect legitimizes this behaviour.

Another big case that we will come to the courts is in Italy where Italian MEP Cecile Kyenge is being sued for defamation for calling a Northern League, who likened her to monkey, racist.

If Kyenge loses this case the flood gates to racial hatred will be open, safe under the law that these racial slurs along with threats of rape and killings will go unpunished.

At least for Osama Abdul Mohsen and his son, there was a happier ending. They now live safely in Spain, and he and his son met the Madrid football team including Christino Ronaldo. His father said:

“When I told Zaid that we were going Spain and we were going to meet Ronaldo, he kept asking me: ‘The real one? The real Ronaldo?’” he says. There was little trace of the crying child that had been carried into Hungary. “It changed his entire character. After all that he had been through, this joy was something out of this world.”

https://www.change.org/p/council-of-the-european-union-support-c%C3%A9cile-kyenge-mep

Simon Woolley