Hungary cuts jail term for Syrian involved in border riot

SZEGED, Hungary — A Hungarian appeals court on Thursday upheld a controversial terrorism conviction handed to a Syrian man for his role in a border riot but cut his jail term from seven years to five.

In a case that saw Hungary come under heavy criticism both at at home and abroad — including from the US State Department and the European Parliament — prosecutors had accused Ahmed Hamed of using a megaphone to orchestrate violence and throwing stones at Hungarian police to force them to open the border with Serbia in September 2015.

The 41-year-old builder, who had lived in EU member Cyprus for around a decade before the clash, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in November 2016 under anti-terrorism laws.

His conviction was annulled last year by the same appeals court in Szeged.

At a retrial in March, Hamed — who has been detained for three years — was again found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison and expulsion from Hungary for 10 years.

Thursday’s final verdict upheld that conviction, but the judge said Hamed must serve at least two-thirds of a five-year-term, which includes time already spent in detention.

According to the judge, mitigating circumstances that justified a more lenient sentence were the time already served, Hamed’s lack of knowledge of the Hungarian language and his young family.

The clashes took place on September 16, 2015, a day after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s hardline anti-immigration government sealed the frontier with razor wire.

During the unrest, several dozen migrants tried to cross the fence into Hungary at the Roszke checkpoint while riot police used tear gas and water cannon to force them back onto Serbian territory.

Around 15 police and 100-150 migrants were injured, including children, prosecutors said. Hamed admitted throwing stones at police but denied being a terrorist.

Hungarian refugee rights groups had condemned the original 10-year verdict as the product of a “show trial” held by the fiercely anti-migrant Orban.