Hungarian Roma leader goes to prison

A Budapest Appeals Court on Thursday ordered in a biding ruling that János Agócs, the former head of the National Roma Self-government (ORÖ), serve his four-year term in a low-security correctional facility, and increased the fine imposed on him to 1 million forints (EUR 2,500).

Agócs was detained on corruption charges in September 2022. He was accused of offering his own position to lesser officials willing to pay 30 million forints for the post in the summer of that year. Agócs’s plan was to make the prospect his deputy, then get him elected head of the body.

The appeals court lowered the security degree of the prison sentence due to Agócs’s deteriorating health.

At the same time, it increased the original fine of 260,000 forints, on the basis of the environmental study showing Agócs’s living conditions as being well above the average.

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