A case has developed in Hungary that has come to involve a left-wing member of parliament, the notorious German-based violent far-left extremist “Hammer Gang” and the bizarre suicide of a Hungarian far-left extremist in a small town outside of Budapest.
Antifa activist András Egyed was found dead at an abandoned Russian military base in the town of Biatorbágy on May 18th after allegedly performing a bizarre “ritual” in which he set fire to a baby doll before hanging himself just a few metres away.
At first, Hungarian police stated that no criminal offence was suspected concerning the suicide, but it later emerged that Egyed’s apartment had been raided and authorities had found as many as 70,000 files of horrific child pornography, some of which involved videos with children as young as two or three years old.
A known member of the Antifa scene, Egyed is said to have lived and worked in Austria for a period at the Cafe Lotta in Innsbruck, described by the Hungarian news portal Metropol as a centre for German and Austrian Antifa extremists.
Hungarian media have also speculated that the February attacks in Budapest may have been planned at the Innsbruck cafe and that Egyed may have been a part of the planning himself.
Egyed was not the subject of the search warrant, however, as police were investigating his partner Krisztina Dobos in connection to the brutal attacks on bystanders that took place earlier this year in February by members of the German-based Hammer Gang, an ultra-violent far-left extremist group.
Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet has claimed that Egyed took his own life following the raid on the couple’s apartment before he was able to be interrogated by police.
Hungarian police later dropped their investigation into Krisztina Dobos, although it was Egyed who provided her alibi.
Dobos is a leading member of the Szikra movement and a colleague of MP András Jámbor, who invited her to the Hungarian parliament after the investigation against Dobos was dropped, calling on members of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party to apologise to her.
Following the suicide of Egyed and the revelations of child pornography found in the shared apartment of him and Dobos, MP András Jámbor has largely refused to comment on the matter except to note that the material did not belong to Dobos and had no connection to the Szikra movement.
The Szikra movement later released a statement saying:
[Budapest Police Headquarters (BRFK)] itself stated that Krisztina D. was not in possession of any recordings of crimes committed against children. In other words, BRFK has repeatedly confirmed that the Szikra Movement has nothing to do with this issue.
The man, who can be identified from Blikk’s article, was not a member of Szikra. He did not attend Szikra’s actions or rallies. There is no person involved in this matter among the members of Szikra.
We are deeply moved by this incident. The Szikra Movement condemns all crimes against children. We hope that the police will not only investigate the crime of storing the recordings in which they are currently acting but will also investigate those who made the recordings and crack down on them with the full severity of the law.
The bizarre and horrific case comes after Hammer Gang leader Lina Engel was sentenced to over five years in prison earlier this year along with three other members of the violent gang who received lesser sentences.
During Engel’s trial, Johannes Domhöver, a former member of the group, became a police informant and described the tactics of the gang, which involved short coordinated violent attacks on targets with hammers and bats aimed at maiming or crippling their opponents.
According to Domhöver, the Hammer Gang coordinated with other Antifa members across Germany and coordinated “training” exercises with far-left militants from Berlin, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Bremen, Rostock, Magdeburg, and elsewhere.
While the group was found guilty of multiple attacks, their February attacks in Budapest gained international media attention and were carried out despite Engel being in police custody.
The involvement of the Hammer Gang was confirmed after the arrest of a 28-year-old named Tobias E., later identified as Tobias Edelhoff, a German national and known associate of Engel.
