Court in Hungary declares German anti-fascist Maja T. guilty

On Wednesday, a court in Hungary ruled that Maja T.*, an anti-fascist activist from the city of Jena in the eastern German state of Thuringia, was guilty of seriously injuring several suspected right-wing extremists in Budapest in February 2023. The attacks had apparently been directed at individuals thought to have participated in the annual “Day of Honor” rally of neo-Nazis from all over Europe, held in the Hungarian capital.

According to the indictment, the 25-year-old German was found guilty of attempted grievous bodily harm and participation in a criminal organization. The verdict is not yet final — it can still be appealed through Hungary’s judicial process. 

The Hungarian public prosecutor’s office had initially demanded a 24-year prison sentence as a “deterrent.” The prosecution argued that T. belonged to a left-wing extremist group with a total of 19 members who had attacked nine people, who suffered broken bones and head injuries.

Human rights concerns

The criminal trial in Budapest had a legal and a political dimension.

In June 2024, T. was extradited from Germany to Hungary and was subsequently held in solitary confinement and stood trial in Budapest.

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, however, ruled that this trial should not have taken place in Hungary, referring to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) and the associated ban on inhumane treatment.

The court ruled that insufficient checks had been made before T.’s extradition to ensure that the conditions of their detention in Hungary would be humane — especially in light of the fact that Maja T. identifies as non-binary.

“Non-binary” refers to individuals who identify as neither exclusively female nor male.

In 2021, Hungary started making legislative amendments to multiple laws, targeting LGBTQ+ individuals. In early 2025, under Viktor Orban, Hungary passed a law that can be used to ban Pride parades and similar events.

Maja T. regularly complained about inadequate hygiene conditions, poor food, extreme temperatures in winter and summer as well as poor lighting and ventilation in the cell, among other things. They were continuously held in isolation and in summer 2025 attempted unsuccessfully to force better prison conditions by going on a 40-day hunger strike.

Politicans from Germany’s Social Democrats, Green Party and  Left Party had been championing Maja T.’s return to Germany and called on Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the German government to apply pressure on Hungary. “If you seriously want to distance yourself from right-wing extremists and stand up for democratic values, you cannot stand idly by while Orban’s regime destroys human lives in Hungarian court,” said human rights campaigner and European parliamentarian for the Left, Carola Rackete, at the time. 

After the verdict, Maja T.’s father spoke of a “political trial” orchestrated to drum up support for Orban ahead of the nation’s parliamentary elections scheduled for this April. Martin Schirdewan, co-chair of the Left group in the European Parliament, expressed a similar view, calling the verdict “disproportionate.” Orban and other members of his government had repeatedly voiced their expectation of a harsh punishment.

Hungary placed the German group “Antifa East,” of which Maja T. is accused of being a member, on its list of terror organizations in 2025, following a similar example by US President Donald Trump. Right-wing extremists, however, have nothing to fear. On February 14, ten days after the verdict against Maja T., neo-Nazis from all over Europe will once again celebrate the so-called “Day of Honor” in Budapest.

*Editor’s note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

This article was translated from German.

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