A Hungarian tribunal in Szeged on Thursday gave a final five-year jail sentence to a Syrian man for “act of terrorism,’’ local media reported.
He perpetrated the act at the Hungarian border with Serbia in a clash between migrants and Hungarian police in the summer of 2015.
The tribunal found him guilty of “illegal crossing of a border as a participant and as a coordinator of a riot aimed at enforcing the State with an act of terrorist offense, as well as in violent behaviour against a person”.
The man may be released on conditional leave after having purged two thirds of the punishment at the earliest.
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In his decision, the tribunal relieved the seven-year prison sentence imposed by the First Instance Court of Szeged in March earlier this year.
According to the court, the sentence was lowered due to the fact that the defendant did not speak Hungarian and he had to take care of his family living abroad.
Ahmed H., a 41-year-old resident of Cyprus for around a decade, has already received a 10-year term in November 2016, but a court of appeal in Szeged in June 2017 has annulled that first verdict in the same June.
The court in southern Hungary had ordered a retrial, citing inconsistent evidence in the original trial.
Ahmed H, after the end of his jail term, will also be expelled from Hungary for a period of 10 years, as an additional sentence.
During the legal procedures, Ahmed H. repeatedly rejected the charge of terrorist acts. He said that he just planned to help his family get away from war. The Syrian man was arrested in Hungary in September of 2015 following the clashes.
The prosecutors also claimed that Ahmed H. had thrown rocks at police, and given police an ultimatum.
The verdict came in the middle of tensions between the Hungarian government and the European Union.
Recently, the European Parliament adopted the so-called Sargentini report, condemning Hungary for the non respect of EU values it vowed to respect upon its entry in the EU back in 2004.