Activist who died in Rome may have claimed Hungarian Justice Minister was a lesbian
Gergely Homonnay, a Hungarian opposition activist who died earlier this year, may have been involved in the Facebook posts threatening to expose Judit Varga, the Minister of Justice, with a video, Mediaworks, a Hungarian media company reports. Hungarian investigators have also asked Italian authorities for help in the investigation.
The death of Homonnay
We have reported on the sudden and strange death of Gergely Homonnay, Democratic Coalition activist in Rome in January this year. The Hungarian activist feared for his life. He talked about his fears to a friend shortly before he died on New Year’s Day. Rumours also called him out as the Devil’s Advocate.
Writer and activist Homonnay was found dead in Bananon, in a private club in Rome. After toasting to the New Year, he allegedly went down to the Turkish bath where only members can enter. He was found by the owner of the club who said that he could not breathe in the location. At noon, the owners of the club called an ambulance, but Homonnay could not be saved. He died at 1.17 PM.
Devil’s Advocate?
The devil’s advocate Facebook page published three posts about the Minister of Justice at the end of December last year (the last posts on the page since then), Index reports. The first post stated that the Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga “did not become a candidate for President of the Republic because she likes girls (as well), and there are some damning recordings of this and her role in the Völner corruption case”.
Reaction to the posts
The author of the post then promised to “activate” and make these recordings public in January. The minister responded by saying that false posts had been published about her and by filing a complaint for defamation.
Mediaworks has now learned that Hungarian investigators believe that the posts may have been made by Homonnay. Investigators have also asked the Italian authorities for help in determining whether Homonnay was behind the posts. They have asked them to hand over the computer of the deceased man, but the Italian authorities have not complied.
Hommonay’s posts about the case
All we know for sure is that he had been following the battle between the devil’s advocate and Judit Varga at the end of December as he has written several posts about it. One of them even reveals that he was accused of being behind the Devil’s Advocate page at the end of December.
One of his posts about it says the following:
“András Hont says I am the Devil’s Advocate. He wrote this after he banned me from his site. Clever… I would like to say that I have not read the book mentioned in his post, I do not have any audio recordings of Judit Varga. In fact, until the scandal broke in Győr, I did not even know who the mayor of Győr was, and as I have no interest in sport, I did not even know that Borkai had won the Olympics.
But the post is hateful: already the ‘I always hated him and his cat’ [referring to Homonnay and his cat – ed.] commenters have appeared and are already railing, but what else do we expect from a former Fidesznyik [Fidesz supporter – ed.] who ends his post by saying that I only have one cat, and it is not at home.
I wish András Hont a nice, happy life, and stop feeling shitty about having to look up to everyone when you introduce yourself.
Kisses!”
The Justice Minister’s answer: this is not my identity
Judit Varga said that she wanted to send a message by filing a complaint, because she felt that statements about her private life were in the category of “something a politician should not have to put up with”.
“I think it was such a limit because it is not part of my gender identity that they are accusing me of […]. It was quite simply not about my life and I had to clarify that,” the minister said. Regarding the Völner case, Judit Varga said that she had not been heard in that case since then.