Will a Kadar-era military judge become the president of the court?

A former military judge of the Kadar regime may become president of the supreme court if a successor to Zoltan Lomnici is not elected next month. Colonel Kaposvari found Gabor Rimner and his associates guilty of spying in 1981. Another document shows that he was unwilling to overturn the conviction of another person convicted of spying. The cases of Hungarians who acted as informants for western countries against the Soviet occupier have still not been satisfactorily resolved.

Rimner's verdict, signed

If parliament rejects the candidacy of Andras Baka, the nominee of Laszlo Solyom, the president, then Bertalan Kaposvari, Lomnici's deputy, will assume the presidency of the court. Kaposvari could serve in the post for nine months, when he will reach the compulsory retirement age of 70.

If he does not resign voluntarily, then the court will have a president with a remarkable career history. He was a judge with the rank of colonel when, on 6 October 1981, he and two other judges on the supreme court found Gabor Rimner and his associates guilty of a criminal offence. Rimner was accused of spying for Nato. (He was released in 1990, but only regained full citizenship in 2001. Repeated attempts to gain rehabilitation have been refused by successive presidents).

The regime change came, but Bertalan Kaposvari stayed. In 1995, six years after the regime change, and still a judge, he, Gyozo Szabo, Gyorgy Berkes, Geza Vereczkei and Sandor Katona rejected an appeal by Mihaly Bencsik, who was found guilty of spying in 1982. They denied him leave to appeal and ordered him to pay the costs of the criminal trial.

Beyond his questionable role in these cases, a further question arises: if the spies convicted in the 1970s and 1980s were true patriots defending their country against Soviet imperialism and helped our current allies by providing important military intelligence, do they not then deserve all recognition and honour the Republic can grant them? Under both Fidesz and Socialist governments, independent courts have ruled otherwise.