Municipal court fines protesters throwing paint at Soviet monument

Budapest, April 18 (MTI) – The municipal court of Budapest has found two men, who recently threw balloons containing orange paint at a Soviet monument in the city centre, guilty of rowdy behaviour and fined them 30,000 forints each (EUR 96).

During the trial on Tuesday, the defendants said their act had been a way of expressing a political opinion. They also said they had not aimed at causing any damage and used water-soluble paint.

In its justification, the court said the two men had “openly violated rules social co-existence and exhibited a provocatively anti-social behaviour, which was suitable to scandalise onlookers”.

Last Thursday, a Budapest court sentenced two activists in a combined 500 hours of community work for throwing paint cans at the presidential Sandor Palace during a demonstration earlier in the week.

Source: MTI