Hedvig Malina is an ethnic Hungarian student^[1][2] 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^[1].

Claim of violence

Hedvig Malina claims she was severely beaten for speaking Hungarian^[3] and also robbed on 25 August, 2006 in Nitra and her attackers wrote "SK (probably means Slovakia) without parasites!" (Slovak: SK bez parazitov), "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube!"(Maďari za Dunai) on her clothes. Ján Packa, the head of Slovakian Police set up a special squad and started the investigation immediately^[4]. At first, nearly all Slovakian political parties distanced themselves from the case, with the exception of the Slovak National Party, led by Ján Slota, infamous for his anti-Hungarian statements. ^[5]

Police decision

Some two weeks after the incident, to great public surprise, police closed the case^[1] with the conclusion that Malina's statements were feigned, and her attack never happened. As announced by Robert Kaliňák, 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. Police examination with the help of DNA analysis proved that the parcel had been posted by Malina herself. She gave the parcel to the police only two days after receiving it because of a national holiday. She applied the stamp too, because the police asked for this^[6]. It was later pointed out that at the time of posting the pack she was in hospital^[7]. She was treated for internal bleeding, police authorities ascertained her injuries had been caused before the day of the claimed attack. Graphology specialists assumed that the offensive writings on her clothes were most probably written by herself. They did not ask Malina for sample, they used an application for a passport from eight years before that is not sure was written by her.^[6][4] Kaliňák also stated, contrary to immediate examinations, she did not have concussion or bruises, and the blood most probably came from her epistaxis; she claims she has nosebleeds when under stress.

In a July 2007 interview with the Slovak Weekly .týžden, Malinová said that Robert Fico and Robert Kaliňák initially believed what the Police concluded, but later only kept repeating those statements due to outside pressure^[8]. She also said that she felt calm and had finished her fourth year at University with an excellent result^[9].

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. ^[10]

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^[11].

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^[12], 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^[13]. The reported reason was unprofessional behaviour^[14]. The program reported mistakes made by the police and the Ministry of Interior but was also biased and contained serious flaws.^[15]

Allegations of injustice

In November 2006 Juraj Kubla reported Malina to the authorities, accusing her of perjury. ^[16] Later Kubla committed suicide by hanging himself leaving behind a suicide note which was not published by the police. ^[17] 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 Juraj Kubla, who had reported Malina to the authorities accusing her with perjury, committed suicide.^[18] Hungarian political party Fidesz called Malina's case a show trial, pointing to many controversial facts. As Zsolt Németh 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". ^[19]

On 26 May 2007 it was revealed that, besides the deceased Juraj Kubla, there was another person who reported Malina to the authorities. He was later identified as Peter Korček, former secret agent and presently a member of the Christian Democratic Movement, a Slovak political party. ^[20]

In June the case took a turn, when an eyewitness turned up. Zdeno Kamenický from Nitra claimed he knew one of the attackers, Robert Benci^[21] from Nitra. Kamenický, due to uncertain reasons, was officially never interrogated by the police, who claimed Benci had "bullet proof alibi"^[22]. 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^[23]. Also in June, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány said that nobody has the right to doubt the independence of justice in another country.^[24]

The next month Ján Packa, head of the police, contrary to his claims he made one year before^[25], 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 Čaplovič, deputy prime minister also accepted that "she may have been beaten, but not because she is Hungarian" ^[25].

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. The Chief Prosecutor's Office started an investigation to find out if it was necessary to look into the case again. As a result, Chief Public Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka admitted that both the police and prosecution had made mistakes without specifying them.

In August 2007, a former high-ranking police officer, Jozef Šátek, filed a complaint against Robert Fico, Robert Kaliňák and Ján Packa, claiming they abused their power in connection with Malina's case. The complaint was dropped in September when the police concluded there was no reason to prosecute them.^[26]

In September 2007, Chief Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka decided to replace police investigators working on the case of Malina's alleged perjury^[27] 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^[28][29]. 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".^[30]

In December 2007 (15 months after the beating) the Slovak police gave the video cassettes about the initial hearing of Malina 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.^[31] 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^[32]. The police still doesn't search the ones who committed the hate crime, only checks the credibility of Malina. Despite the police's early claims not one, but two cameras were used for the recording^[33]. Malina 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^[7][34]. Radio Slovakia International commented: "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 Béla Bugár 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"^[34].

References