(Vatican Radio) Hungarian prosecutors have charged a former communist leader with
war crimes for his involvement in crushing Hungary's 1956 Revolution against Soviet
domination.
In a statement, prosecutors said the now 92-year-old Béla Biszku
was a member of the Communist Party's Temporary Executive Committee, which set up
militias to shoot at mainly unarmed protesters, killing dozens of people.
The
forces opened fire at crowds in November and December of 1956, in Budapest and in
the northern town of Salgotarjan, where 46 men, women and children were shot dead,
according to investigators.
"The Budapest Prosecutor's Office has today submitted
to the Budapest Court of Justice an indictment in the criminal proceedings launched
against Bela Biszku for war crimes and other crimes," the prosecution said in a statement.
Hungary's
1956 revolt against the Soviet-backed government in Budapest and its policies was
seen as the first major threat to Moscow's control of eastern Europe since the end
of World War II.
REVOLUTION IMPACT
Though the Revolution was crushed,
it had a lasting impact on how the communist regimes of eastern Europe were perceived
and played a role in the eventual end of the Soviet Union and its rule across the
region more than three decades later.
Biszku, who was interior minister between
1957 and 1961, was placed under house arrest in Budapest last year. The arrest was
later relaxed, but he was banned from leaving the capital.
Biszku has denied
wrongdoing, saying he has "nothing to apologize" for.
"I was not an interior
minister during the time of the shootings in 1956. (Communist)leader János Kádár was
looking for someone to carry out these actions, but I did not order it," he said in
an interview.
At least 226 people were executed for their role in the revolution,
including Prime Minister Imre Nagy, whose short-lived government was brought down
by the Soviet invasion.
Biszku is also accused of refusing to prosecute
militia members who in March 1957 severely beat three researchers from the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences for participating in the revolution.
AMMUNITION FOUND
Additionally,
he was charged with the illegal possession of ammunition, as 11 bullets were found
in his home during a search in September 2012.
Biszku, who faces life imprisonment,
will be the first former high-ranking official expected to answer for crimes committed
in the name of communism in Hungary.
News that he will be prosecuted was also
announced by the center-right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which has
made the prosecution of former communists a key part of its policies.
A 2011
law, pushed through by Orbán's ruling center-right Fidesz Party, allows for the prosecution
of crimes committed under the communist regime.
With elections coming up
next year, the government's International Communications Office pointed out Biszku's
links to the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, which ruled the nation for decades.
The
current opposition Socialists grew out of that, following the collapse of communism
in 1989.