The National Legal Protection Agency (NJSz) Communication Regarding the Kepiro Sandor Court Decision

2011. július 26.

NJSz views the not-guilty decision made by the Metropolitan Court of Budapest on July 19, 2011 in the war crimes trial against Dr. Sandor Kepiro as having extraordinary significance.

The defendant, Dr. Sandor Kepiro, and his counsel have submitted an appeal against the passed not-guilty judgement to reach a complete dismissal of the case.

As is known, Dr. Sandor Kepiro, was a lieutenant in the local gendarme in the South Hungary region (currently part of Northern Serbia), during the time of January 21-23 1942, when a raid was conducted against the then Yugoslavian Partizan forces and supporters in the town, known then as, Újvidek, Hungary (currently Novi Sad, Serbia). During the raid severe crimes had reportedly been committed, including cases of homicide, against innocent civilians and the targeted Partizan forces and their supporters. Risking his own life, the defendant opposed the armed raid and murder of innocent people by not participating in the raid and instead helping to save several innocent people and families, including a Serbian-Jewish family, from harm during the operation. The defendant strongly refuted that he committed any crimes and according to the Court’s decision there was no credible and legitimate evidence suggesting he had committed any crime.

Even in the face of the false accusations and an intense slander campaign started in 2006 by the Jerusalem, Israel based Simon Wiesenthal Center, it was known from accessible documentation, and further acknowledged by the Metropolitan Court, that Dr. Sandor Kepiro was never convicted of the crime of murder by any Court of Law. The nullified and therefore unusable collective trial and verdict of 1944, also did not have evidence of homicide nor did it have any guilty verdict against the defendant. (During this time, the many guilty verdicts affecting both the guilty and innocent defendants, were done to bring Hungary a more favorable peace treaty with the Allied Powers).

Due to the slander and human degradation campaign that Dr. Sandor Kepiro had to endure, and considering his innocence, there will be corresponding legal consequences and libel suits to follow.

Foreign news reporters (e.g., Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nem York Times) have incorrectly reported the following:

Dr. Sandor Kepiro was supported by a Hungarian Political party;

The case was funded by the NJSz;

A political party funds the NJSz;

The truth is that Dr. Sandor Kepiro personally and legally retained and was represented by defense attorney Dr. Zsolt Zetenyi without any outside funding.

NJSz is accessible by all members of society and has never been affiliated with a political party nor has it ever accepted any financial support from a political party in the past and will not do so in the future.

NJSz provides legal services to cases involving human rights violations to all members of Hungarian society, especially cases involving the purposeful degradation of Hungarian people, society, and culture in Hungary and abroad. Dr. Sandor Kepiro’s case falls into the NJSz’s scope and mission and we will continue to steadfastly pursue his case and provide news updates and details as they come available. Dr. Kepiro’s case is one where a Hungarian is faced with serious capital war crimes, that were baseless and arbitrary, which was publicized in such a way as to seriously degrade his personal self and also could be improperly interpreted to incorporate Hungary and Hungarian society as collective criminals.

We await the swift and just conclusion of this case.