The Budapest Police Department has informed the public today that it has started investigating an incident that took place after the Pride March as “violence against a member of a social group”, a new crime introduced in February 2009 to cover homophobic and other hate related incidents. The case involves the attack and beating up of a marcher wearing the official T-shirt of the Budapest Pride by a group of anti-gay protesters.

The 20 year old female student was waiting for public transportation close to the end point of the Pride March on Saturday afternoon when a group of anti-gay protesters approached her. She was verbally harassed and slapped by a female member of the group. When she fought back, male members of the group punched her to the ground and kept on kicking her. She called the police at once, but the attackers escaped. According to the first reports the police started investigating the case as “rowdyism” (a vaguely defined term in the Hungarian Criminal Code referring to violent behavior that incites fear and indignation). The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union petitioned the police referring to the incident as hate crime and calling on the police to investigate it according to the new provisions in the Criminal Code that prosecute hate crimes against any social group under the term “violence against member of a social group”. The police reported later the day that investigations will proceed on the grounds of this more severe crime punishable with a maximum of eight years imprisonment instead of three which is the maximum punishment for rowdyism. This will be the first investigation of its kind involving LGBT people since the new legislation entered into force on February 1, 2009.

The provisions on “violence against member of a social group” were adopted by the Hungarian Parliament in November 2008 following the attacks of the Pride Marches in 2007 and 2008. Previously, only hate crimes against national, ethnic and religious groups had been addressed specifically, and homophobic incidents were considered assault – with significantly lower levels of punishment. Rather than listing sexual orientation and gender identity as a specific ground, the new legislation retains the specific mentioning of national, ethnic and religious groups, but opens up the groups covered by adding the general category ‘other social group’. The hesitation concerning the legal evaluation of the incident shows that the police is still unwilling to give due attention to the problem of hate crimes. Hungarian LGBT NGOs have called on the government to organize trainings for the police, prosecutors and judges, as well as to start campaigns among LGBT people to increase reporting of such incidents.