Hedvig Malina is an ethnic Hungarian student from Horné Mýto (Hungarian: Vámosfalu), Slovakia, who was allegedly physically assaulted in a hate crime incident. Her case represents a highly controversial and debated issue of Hungarian-Slovak relations.

Claim of violence

Hedvig Malina claims she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August, 2006 in Nitra and her attackers wrote "SK (probably means Slovakia) without parasites!", "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube!" on her clothes. Ján Packa, the head of Slovakian Police set up a special squad and started the investigation immediately^[1]. At first, nearly all Slovakian political parties distanced themselves from the case, with the notable exception of the Slovak National Party, led by Jan Slota, infamous for his anti-Hungarian statements. ^[2]

Police decision

Some two weeks after the incident, to great public surprise, police closed the case with the conclusion that Malina's statements were feigned, and her attack never happened. As announced by Robert Kalinák, Slovakian deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, none of the alleged victim's claims proved to be accurate. Her mobile network operator, for instance did not record any call on the day in question. Malina also claimed she had been robbed, and her identity papers were later sent to her address; according to Kalinák, DNA analysis proved that the parcel was posted by Malina herself. (It was later pointed out that at the time of posting the pack she was in hospital.) As for her injuries - she was treated for internal bleeding - police authorities ascertained they had been caused before the day of the claimed attack. Graphology specialists (without asking Malina for sample) assumed that the offensive writings on her clothes were actually done by herself. ^[3][1] Kalinák also stated, contrary to immediate examinations, she did not have concussion or bruises, and the blood most probably came from her epistaxis - the girl claims she has nosebleeds when under stress. As Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia put it, he felt sorry that Slovakia had to spare energies on a girl under test anxiety.

In a July, 2007 interview with Slovak Weekly .tyzden Malina thinks the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior first believed what the Police said, but later only repeated their statements due to outside pressure^[4]. She feels calm now, finished her fourth year at the University with an excellent result.

Controversy over the investigation

Béla Bugár, then leader of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK-MKP) questioned the results of the investigation, calling attention to the fact that medical examination initiated by the police did not take place until 10 days after the case, allowing time for bruises to disappear. ^[5]

Malina first appeared before the public on 13 September 2006, maintaining her initial claims. She said she was ready for polygraph test, and that she and her lawyer, Gábor Gál were considering reporting the case to public prosecutors because the victim had been interrogated for 6 hours during which officers tried to persuade her to withdraw her claims.

Ján Packa said the attitude of Malina and her lawyer was "the despising of the work of Slovak police", while Kaliňák pointed out that Gál was trying to set up a political issue.

Hungarian politician Viktor Polgár pointed out that the incident was not an isolated case^[6]. (See 2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs)

The following day, Gábor Gál stood down due to pressure on him and the whole SMK-MKP for being involved in the case^[7], and gave over the case to a Slovak attorney, Roman Kvasnica. Kvasnica laid a complaint with the Nitra prosecution, which was refused on October 18 2006. In the meantime, state-owned Slovak television channel STV broadcasted a documentary directed by Eugen Korda, which claimed Kaliňák did not always tell the truth in connection with the case. The director was rapidly dismissed from the television channel.^[8]

Allegations of injustice

In November a certain Jaroslav Kubla reported Malina to the authorities, accusing her with perjury. ^[9] Later Kubla committed suicide by hanging himself leaving behind a suicide note which was not published by the police. ^[10] At the end of November the police initiated criminal prosecution against Malina, who, in turn, brought the case to the Constitutional Court. After a relatively calm period the case was taken up again in May 2007, when Jaroslav Kubla, who had reported Malina to the authorities accusing her with perjury, committed suicide.^[11] Hungarian political party Fidesz called Malina's case a show trial, pointing to many controversial facts. As Zsolt Német reminded, the media was informed about the act of accusing before the lawyer of the victim, and the accusation had been announced before it actually took place. Robert Fico called the above "the coarse intervention of Budapest into Slovakian home matters". ^[12]

On 26 May it was revealed that, besides the deceased Jaroslav Kubla, there was another person who reported Malina to the authorities. This reporter was later identified as Peter Korček, former secret agent and presently a member of the Christian Democratic Movement, a Slovak political party. ^[13]

In June the case took another turn, when an eyewitness turned up. Zdeno Kamenicky from Nitra claimed he knew one of the attackers, a certain Robert Benci^[14] from Nitra. Kamenický, due to uncertain reasons, was officially never interrogated by the police, who claimed Benci had "bullet proof alibi"^[15]. This alibi later turned out to be two contradicting statements from his mother and uncle, who said that Robert at the time was either at home sleeping or at a holiday place with his friends^[16]. Also in June, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány said that nobody has the right to doubt the independence of justice in another country.^[17]

The next month Ján Packa, head of the police, contrary to his claims he made some 11 months before, admitted that "Malina might have been beaten". He now said: "we never claimed she was not beaten. We claimed it did not happen the way she states." It was also revealed that medical certificates made right after the incident but disregarded by the police did prove Malina's recounting. Dušan Èaploviè, deputy prime minister also accepted that "she may have been beaten, but not because she is Hungarian" ^[18].

Careful examinations following the above statements showed that Malina's handwritten testimony was not copied accurately in typing, notably, an important sentence had been left out, which made Chief Prosecutor's Office start an investigation to find out if it was necessary to take up the case again. As a result of the investigation, Chief Public Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka admitted that "both the police and prosecution made mistakes"; he, however, would not tell of what nature.

Meanwhile a former high-ranking police commissioner reported Robert Fico, Robert Kalinák and Ján Packa to the authorities, claiming they abused their power in connection with Malina's case.

In September 2007, Chief Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka decided to replace police investigators working on the case of Malina's alleged perjury^[19].

According to latest news Chief Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka decided to replace police investigators working on the case of Malina's alleged perjury.^[20], and start the investigation again.

In October, 2007 Tom Lantos, Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives asked the Prime Minister of Slovakia to distance themselves from the Benes decrees, a reasonable process in the Hedvig Malina case, and to treat members of the Hungarian minority as equal^[21]. He also blamed Robert Fico for creating the climate for anti-Hungarian sentiments by including "voluntarily in his coalition individuals with known ultra-nationalist, anti-Hungarian attitudes".^[22]

In December 2007 (15 months after the beating) the Slovak police gave the video cassettes about the initial hearing of Hedvig to Roman Kvasnica, her lawyer. It turned out the police broke the law several times. They forgot to mention three police officers were also in the room throughout the hearing.^[23] The investigators stopped the recording sometimes. The hearing lasted for six hours, but the police recorded only five hours of it, released now only three hours of that recording^[24]. The police still doesn't search the ones who committed the hate crime, only checks the credibility of the girl. Despite the police's early claims not one, but two cameras were used for the recording^[25]. Hedvig is still accused of misleading the authority for which she may be sentenced to five years in prison.

Conspiracy theories

Malina got into the centre of several conspiracy theories, which relate the case to the Slovak authorities or nationalists. ^{[26] [27]} Pravda daily and Radio Slovakia International comments the cause following: "The victim has become the guilty party, and the question now is whether or not she will be prosecuted herself. She's been a pawn in a political game from the very beginning." ... "Thanks to the overtime put in by Bela Bugar and his ethnic-Hungarian SMK party, Malinova appears to be the victim of 'Slovak extremism', and not of a 'Hungarian game.' At this stage, we can only forgive Hedviga, but not forget those who were standing behind her the whole time."^[28]

References