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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 32-3-133
TITLE:             Kadar Announces Amnesty
BY:                prw
DATE:              1963-3-22
COUNTRY:           Hungary
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  Hungarian Unit
THEMATIC SUBJECTS: Hungary--1956-1965, Amnesty, Political Persecution

--- Begin ---

X/270 CURT - KADAR ANNOUNCES AMNESTY	F-13O

Munich, March 22, 1963 (Target Area Research and
Analysis/Hungarian Unit) -- The highlight of Janos Kadar's
latest speech, delivered at the opening session of the new
parliament On March 21, was the announcement of a "far-reaching
general amnesty" to be fully implemented by April 4, the 18th
anniversary of Hungary's "liberation" by the Red Army. The
amnesty will extend to many persons who took part in the 1956
rising. Although Kadar's statement is somewhat loosely worded
from the viewpoint of legal terminology, it would appear to be
a dramatic reflection of the regime's new policies in the make
of the 22nd Soviet Party Congress.

Even if the measure is marked by some limitations --
in this regard only the full text of the decree will give a
 complete picture -- the amnesty nevertheless deserves to be
termed broad in scope and of considerable political significance
both at home and abroad. Two previous amnesties, granted under
kadar in April 1959 and March 1960, were only partial amnesties
which did not cover many so-called crimes against the state.

The new measure is in keeping with the surely
progressing trend of Hungarian destalinization, which has been so much
in evidence during the past year. It is consistent with the
policies determined at the Eighth Party Congress, and may even
go beyond Kadar's slogan: "who is not against us, is with us".

The international significance of the amnesty may be
very considerable. There would now seem to be no remaining
obstacle in the way of a visit to Hungary by U Thant. Former protests against
the participation of Hungarian delegations in international
conferences under UN auspices may well have to be lifted.

The amnesty will apply to the following categories of
offenders:

- war criminals, under certain conditions

- persons who violated the laws by abusing their power
in the era of "personality cult"

- persons convicted for counter-revolutionary crimes

- those who committed anti-estate crimes during the
past six years

- all who left Hungary without due permission (illegal
border crossers)

- certain groups of common criminals

- people sentenced to corrective labor and for minor
delinquencies (corrective labor is imposed on minor offenders
who serve their sentence at their normal place of work but at
a reduced salary).

P.T.O

X/270 CURT - (1) KADAR ANNOUNCES AMNESTY	F-131

The amnesty does not apply to
- espionage and high treason
- to murder and arson
- to recidivists

On the other hand, those who do not fall under the
general amnesty may ask for and obtain pardon on "individual
grounds".

The comparison of the provisions of this amnesty with
those of 1959 and 1960 shows a trend to extend the measure of
clemency to an increasing number of people representing a larger
number of criminal categories.

Examining these groups of people covered by the new amnesty,
primary attention must be given to 1) "counter-revolutionary"
offenders who committed their "crimes" before 1 May, l957 and 2)
to those sentenced for anti-state crimes after that deadline.

As to the former category, in 1959 only those minor
offenders were pardoned whose term did not exceed two years,
while the term of those sentenced to not more than four years,
was halved. Leading "counter-revolutionaries" were expressly
excluded from the 1959 amnesty. The 1960 amnesty went somewhat
farther, by suspending sentences under six years. Moreover, four
prominent "counter-revolutionary" offenders serving long terms,
among them notably Tibor Dery, were set free "on parole" on
"individual" grounds. In 1959, there was only one such "individual"
case of clemency: the late Zoltan Tildy, who was sentenced to six
years.

If Kadar's words may be correctly interpreted, all
"counter-revolutionary" offenders should "benefit from the new
amnesty with the excepion of those, perhaps, who were sentenced
for having killed Communists or secret policemen and are
therefore classified as "murderers". Whether or not other persons
falling into the category of "counter-revolutionaries" are excluded
from the new amnesty will appear only from the text of the decree.

In the category of "counter-revolutionary" offenders are
such prominent personalities as Istvan Bibo, Minister of State
in Imre Nagy's last government, sentenced to a life term in a
secret trial in August or September 1958; journalist Gyula
Obersovszky, whose death sentence was commuted to a life term in
July 1957; police Colonel Sandor Kopacsi, deputy commander of
the National Guard during the 1956 uprising, sentenced to a life
term; Sandor Racz and Sandor Bali, the two leaders of the Central
Workers Council of Budapest until their arrest on 9 December
1956, who were sentenced to 15 years in a secret trial; Gabor
Tanczos, former secretary of the "Petöfi" Club, sentenced to 15
years or to life in a secret trial; journalist Pal Locsei, sentenced
to eight to 10 years in a secret trial; economist Gyorgy Adam,

(MORE)

X/270 CURT - (2) KADAR ANNOUNCES AMNESTY	F-132

sentenced to eight years in a secret trial; Laszlo Kardos,
former director of the Budapest Folklore Museum, who was
instrumental in smuggling Imre Nagy's political writings out
of the country after the uprising was crushed, sentenced to a
life term in a secret trial; writer Mihaly Lendvai, sentenced
to eight years.

Besides the prominent "counter-revolutionaries", a
fairly large number of other less prominent people are expected
to regain their freedom. Our records show/61 persons, mostly
freedom fighter leaders in the counties, serving terms from seven
years to life imprisonment (12 cases) as well as 28 people
sentenced from seven years to life terms for "hiding weapons",
the well-known pretext for convicting freedom fighters.

Turning to political offenders whose anti-state
activities were committed after 1 May 1957, it has to be pointed
out that most such cases are so recent that they could not be
affected by either of the earlier amnesties. In fact, the first
important political trial for "post-revolutionary" anti-state
activities took place at the time the 1959 amnesty was announced.
Other cases date back to June 1961 and July 1962.

The following people are expected to regain their
freedom if the amnesty is carried out as promised by Kadar:

Professor Ferenc Merey and two associates sentenced
to terms from six to 10 years on 1 April 1959.

Twelve Catholic priests and laymen sentenced to terms
from two and a half to 12 years in June 1961.

People involved in the so-called Puski case. There were
three sentences from three to four and a half years(the heaviest
having been meted out to the leader of the group, Dr.Sandor
Puski, a former publisher and National Peasant Party leader).

Also expected to be set free are the Catholic clergyman
Antal Lotz, sentenced to five years in December 1960, and the
distinguished Benedictine monk Ferenc Xaver Szunyogh, whose trial
was never officially reported, but who is known to have been
sentenced to five years in the fall of 1961.

War criminals were first pardoned under the amnesty of
1960 while that of 1959 excluded such people. In 1960, people
convicted of war crimes were set free provided they had served
half their sentences.

The new amnesty pardons people who violated the law
by abusing their powers in the era of the personality cult. This
follows the pattern of 960 amnesty. In I960, two very prominent
persons, Mihaly Parkas and his son Wladimir were pardoned
???on individual" grounds. Kadar has not revealed???
who will now benefit from the new amnesty. They are in all

x/270 CURT - (3) KADAR ANNOUNCES AMNESTY	F-133

likelihood former officers of the secret police, court officials,
etc. Their amnesty could he a gesture toward dogmatists arid
sectarians "who might otherwise wonder why a large variety of
"enemies of the people" are Toeing set free if Communists who
erred in serving the "cause" are not also liberated.

The amnesty of illegal border crossers is addressed to
the masses of exiles living in the free world. It is hard to
say at this moment whether they will "be encouraged by it to
return to Hungary. Earlier amnesties of the same kind had very
little effect.

prw 2226 .

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