(JTA) — Prosecutors in Budapest rejected a complaint about a lawmaker who called Jews a “security risk.”
Rabbi Slomo Koves and Daniel Bodnar of Hungary’s Chabad-Lubavitch community had made the complaint over statements made in parliament in November by Marton Gyongyosi of the ultranationalist Jobbik party.
The Central Investigative Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the Hungarian capital said Wednesday that Gyongyosi’s remarks could not be classified as inciting to hatred, as Koves and Bodnar had argued, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement Thursday, Koves wrote, "It is our conviction that this rejection is a further sign that the current Hungarian judicial practice is unable to provide an adequate response to the phenomena of incitement of hatred."
Gyongyosi had said it was “time to assess … how many people of Jewish origin there are here, and especially in the Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian government, who represent a certain national security risk for Hungary.”
On Dec. 17, Hungary’s parliament passed an amendment which exposes speakers who use “abusive language” in parliament to physical removal and fines, but only if they are imposed by the speaker of the house within five days of the making of the abusive statements.
