Severe Sentence of Liberal Leader Laid to Anti-Semitism
Baron Ludwig Havatny, widely known as an author and Finance Minister in Count Karolyi’s short-lived Republican government in Hungary, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and fined $500,000 for criticism of the present Hungarian regime, a despatch from the Paris office of the New York World reports.
The sentence, pronounced yesterday in Budapest, is being denounced by the Baron’s friends as a piece of anti-Semitism and reactionary revenge. The severity of the sentence has astounded Europe, for Havatny’s only offense was denunciation of alleged terrorism by the Horthy regime just after the Soviet of Bela Kun was overthrown.
Furthermore, the offense is eight years old, the Baron has engaged in no political activity since, and returned to Hungary voluntarily in the belief that he had made his peace with the Government and that by throwing himself on the mercy of the court the charges would be dropped.
The fine imposed, it is believed, will take what remains of the Baron’s once great fortune. He spent a great deal of money immediately after the war in preventing Hungary from going Bolshevist then instead of later, under Bela Kun.
Coming from a well known liberal Jewish family, Baron Havatny allied himself with Count Karolyi. After the fall of the republic before Bela Kun the Baron fled. He did not however, maintain active opposition to the present Government.
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