German national handed 8 years over attacks on far right in Hungary

German national Maja T has been sentenced to eight years in prison over attacks on suspected far-right extremists in Budapest, a Hungarian court ruled on Wednesday.

Maja T, who identifies as non-binary, was involved in physical attacks by far-left activists on the sidelines of an international gathering of neo-Nazis in the Hungarian capital in February 2023, the Budapest Municipal Court found.

Nine people were injured in a total of five attacks, including four of them seriously.

The case made headlines in Germany and beyond, amid concerns that Maja T would not be given a fair trial in Hungary where the government of right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has severely restricted the rights of the LGBT community.

An alleged Antifa member, the 25-year-old was found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm and membership of a criminal organization. The verdict is not yet final.

The sentence cannot be suspended, said Judge Jozsef Sos. The prosecution had demanded 24 years in prison, while the defence had sought an acquittal.

Maja T was accused of belonging to a group of some 20 far-left extremists that plotted violent attacks on European neo-Nazis who gathered in Budapest in February 2023 for an annual commemoration of the Nazis and their Hungarian fascist collaborators.

They attacked people who they assumed had taken part in the rally with batons, a hammer and pepper spray in five separate locations in the city between February 9 and 11, 2023.

Prosecutors believe Maja T was involved in two of the attacks.

Maja T did not comment on the allegations during the nearly one-year trial, but criticized the proceedings as unfair and went on a hunger strike for around 40 days in June in protest against about poor conditions in prison.

The German citizen was arrested in Berlin in December 2023 and extradited to Hungary in June 2024 after Germany's Federal Constitutional Court was too late in its bid to prevent the extradition after deeming it unlawful.

Six others accused of involvement in the attacks went on trial in Germany earlier this year.

Orbán, who classified the far-left umbrella group Antifa as a "terrorist organization" last year, had repeatedly called for a tough punishment in the case.