Convicted Syrian man’s appeal trial set for September

The appeal trial of Ahmed H, a Syrian man who was convicted of “acts of terror” for inflaming a riot of migrants at the Serbia-Hungary border in 2015, has been set for Sept. 20, the Szeged Appeals Court said on Monday.

In March, Szeged Court of Justice sentenced Ahmed H to seven years in prison and expelled him from Hungary for 10 years.

That hearing was a retrial after a judge ruled that available evidence had not been assessed properly in the first trial.

The prosecutor’s office appealed the ruling, asking for a longer sentence, while the defence appealed for a lesser conviction and leniency.

In the first-instance ruling by the Szeged court in November 2016, Ahmed H was sentenced to ten years in prison for terrorist activities involving illegal border crossing as well as incitement to violence in the context of a riot.

The court ruled that at least two-thirds of his term must be served before permanent expulsion from the country.

As part of his conviction, Ahmed H was sentenced for using a megaphone to direct migrants who were hurling rocks at police on the Hungarian border.

Source: MTI