Árpád Horvath’s grandfather: “He was in a solitary confinement for four days without toilet paper, without anything.”

Árpád Horváth’s father: “In the first days all of them were heavily beaten, my son’s spine was so badly hurt that his legs got blocked.”

The prison manager admitted that his employees abused their position when they assaulted the young men, but he assured us that he imposed sanctions on the employees.” (From the conversation with the relatives – remark of the CM.)

/“What kind of sanctions? Did he start legal proceedings?” – asks the CM./

The parents were complaining about the deteriorating health conditions of their sons in the last months. One of them is under constant neurological treatment; the others have problems with their spines. The relatives cannot say anything concrete because the visits last only 7-8 minutes and speaking in Hungarian is strictly prohibited; when the guard thinks that they are talking about something that is not allowed, and then he interrupts the conversation. As the parents say, it happened many times that the judge, Ms Zdenka Stakić refused the parents’ request for visiting their sons. The letters are censured and therefore the parents receive them a few weeks later. As they say, they managed to communicate in their mother tongue only three times.

The relatives also noticed physical changes on their sons. Árpád’s parents noticed during one of the visits that his left eye was bloody. “I asked my son what happened but he did not dare to answer,”-says his father.

The parents say that on the first night in the prison the young men were tremendously beaten which was confirmed by them as well. One of them managed to send an uncensored letter from the prison in which he described in detail what tortures they had to suffer:

October 21, 2004

“Hello Dad,

I hope you’re alright. I’m writing this letter because I’ve been hoping to tell you what happened with me when I’m at home but as you see, this won’t happen.

I’d like you to read this letter up to Mum and Grandpa, please, do it for me. I though I’d keep quiet about the sufferings and assaults I’ve received and still receive here – I think both about physical and psychological assaults. I think you’re interested in why I can’t see with my right eye, although I’m still afraid that this letter will have consequences, I don’t care and I hope that this letter will be read by an influential person, too. The first thing I’d like to tell you is that I can’t see with my right eye because several times I was taken from my cell without reason, I was kicked on my kidneys, slammed on my face and head as if they knew that I could see with my right eye, but now it’s not good anymore. This goes on from the very first day, from that Saturday late afternoon when I was brought here. Within an hour I received the first “pack” without reason, then a few minutes later I was put in a solitary confinement, 2-3 hours later I was taken to the corridor and I was kicked on my kidneys and eye and this has been going on since then.

There’s no day without being slammed but I don’t know why. My kidneys hurt me so much that I can’t remember I’ve ever had this pain in my life. I could tell you exactly who those guards are who are doing this to me, but I won’t do it now. I haven’t been talking about this either to you or to the lawyer because there was a guard beside me all the time and was listening what I was saying; I hope you’ll receive this letter and you’ll tell everything I’ve just said to the lawyer and believe me, this is nothing but the truth. You know that I can’t do anything against it from here, but I think that you and the lawyer can. I don’t know what’s happening but the lawyer didn’t visit me either last week or this one, but please tell him, when he comes, he shouldn’t mention this here because it’ll make the things only worse. Instead, if he can, he should do something.

On Thursday I’m going to the hospital, I’ve been there today, too, I don’t even see the light with my left eye, and my right eye sees only 65%. Please, do something before it gets too late. I can still see something but in the mornings it’s very hazy. I hope you receive this letter.

Lots of love to all of you.

(…)

Bye! (10)

With the help of Mr Antal Bozóki, a lawyer this letter was forwarded to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, the European Council and Mr Rasim Ljaljić, the Minister of the Minority in Serbia and Montenegro. The only response the letter got was from the first addressee, their representative visited the young men in the prison. Mr Rasim Ljaljić, although his official task is to protect human rights did not even reply to the desperate parents. The families are afraid since they received letters with dead threat which was reported to the police but they refused to investigate upon the issue.

November 28, 2005

1.The Hét Nap, May 25, 2005, 2.The Hét Nap, May 25, 2005, 3.The Kapu, September 2005, 4.The Hét Nap, May 25, 2005

5. The Kapu, September 2005, 6.The Magyar Szó, October 1-2, 2005, 7.The Hét Nap, May 25, 2005, 8.The Hét Nap, May 25, 2005

9.The Kapu, September 2005,10. The Vajdaság Ma, April 28 2005

Page:   1   2   3