Hedvig Malina

Hedviga Malinová (also spelled Hedvig Malina in Hungarian sources) is a Slovak student of Hungarian ethnicity from Horné Mýto, Slovakia, who was allegedly physically assaulted in a hate crime incident. Her case represents a highly controversial and debated issue of Hungarian-Slovak relations.

Malinová married in February 2008 and changed her surname to Žáková after her Slovak husband Peter Žák. As of February 2008, she is in her fourth month of pregnancy.

Claim of violence

Hedviga Malinová claims she was severely beaten and robbed on 25 August, 2006 in Nitra and her attackers wrote "SK (probably means Slovakia) without parasites!" (Slovak: SK bez parazitov), "Hungarians to the other side of the Danube!"(Maďari za Dunai) on her clothes. Ján Packa, the head of Slovakian Police set up a special squad and started the investigation immediately. At first, nearly all Slovakian political parties distanced themselves from the case, with the exception of the Slovak National Party, led by Ján Slota, infamous for his anti-Hungarian statements.

Police decision

Some two weeks after the incident, to great public surprise, police closed the case with the conclusion that Malinová's statements were feigned, and her attack never happened. As announced by Robert Kaliňák, Slovakian deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, none of the alleged victim's claims proved to be accurate. Her mobile network operator, for instance did not record any call on the day in question. Malinová also claimed she had been robbed. Her identity papers were later sent to her address. Police examination with the help of DNA analysis found Malinová's DNA on the envelope and the stamp. She gave the parcel to the police two days after receiving it because of a national holiday. It was pointed out that at the time the envelope was posted, she was in hospital. She was treated for internal bleeding, and the police authorities ascertained they had been caused before the day of the claimed attack. Graphology specialists concluded that the offensive writings on her clothes were most probably written by her. They did not ask Malinová for sample; they used an application for a passport from eight years before that is not sure was written by her. Kaliňák also stated, contrary to immediate examinations, she did not have concussion or bruises, and the blood most probably came from her epistaxis; Malinová claims she has nosebleeds when under stress.

In a July 2007 interview with the Slovak Weekly .týžden, Malinová said that Robert Fico and Robert Kaliňák initially believed that she made the attack up and had kept repeating their statements due to outside pressure. She also said that she felt calm and finished her fourth year at University with an excellent result.

Controversy over the investigation

Béla Bugár, then leader of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition, questioned the results of the investigation, calling attention to the fact that medical examination initiated by the police did not take place until 10 days after the case, allowing time for bruises to disappear.

Malinová first appeared before the public on 13 September 2006, maintaining her initial claims. She said she was ready for polygraph test. Malinová and her lawyer, Gábor Gál, were considering reporting the case to public prosecutors, because the victim had been interrogated for 6 hours, during which officers tried to persuade her to withdraw her claims.

Ján Packa said the attitude of Malinová and her lawyer was "despising of the work of Slovak police," while Kaliňák pointed out that Gál was trying to set up a political issue.

Hungarian politician Viktor Polgár pointed out that the incident was not an isolated case.(See 2006 Slovak-Hungarian diplomatic affairs)

The following day, Gábor Gál stood down because of pressure on him and the whole SMK-MKP for being involved in the case. The new attorney was Roman Kvasnica. Kvasnica laid a complaint with the Nitra prosecution, which was refused on October 18 2006.

The state-owned Slovak television channel STV aired a documentary directed by Eugen Korda, which claimed Kaliňák did not always tell the truth in connection with the case. Korda was subsequently dismissed from the television channel. The reported reason was unprofessional behaviour, which was amongst other based on a report on the TV program made by Gabriel Šípoš from Slovak Press Watch. Šípoš noted that the program reported mistakes made by the police and the Ministry of Interior but was also biased and contained serious flaws.

Allegations of injustice

In November 2007 Juraj Kubla reported Malinová to the authorities, accusing her of perjury. Later Kubla committed suicide by hanging himself leaving behind a suicide note which was not published by the police. At the end of November 2007, the police initiated criminal prosecution against Malinová, who, in turn, brought the case to the Constitutional Court. In May 2007, Juraj Kubla, who had reported Malinová to the authorities, committed suicide.

Hungarian political party Fidesz called Malinová's case a show trial, pointing to many controversial facts. As Zsolt Német reminded, the media was informed about the act of accusing before the lawyer of the victim, and the accusation had been announced before it actually took place. Robert Fico called the above "the coarse intervention of Budapest into Slovakian home matters".

On May 26, 2007 it was revealed that besides the deceased Juraj Kubla there was another person who reported Malinová to the authorities. This person was later identified as Peter Korček, former secret agent and presently a member of the Christian Democratic Movement, a Slovak political party.

In June 2007, the case took another turn, when a new witness turned up. Zdeno Kamenický from Nitra claimed he knew one of the attackers, identified as Robert Benci from Nitra. Benci denied the allegations.. This alibi later turned out to be two contradicting statements from his mother and uncle, who said that Robert at the time was either at home sleeping or at a holiday place with his friends. Also in June, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány said that nobody has the right to doubt the independence of justice in another country.

The next month Ján Packa, head of the police, contrary to his claims he made one year before, admitted that "Malinová might have been beaten". He now said: "we never claimed she was not beaten. We claimed it did not happen the way she states." It was also revealed that medical certificates made right after the incident but disregarded by the police did prove Malinová's recounting. Dušan Čaplovič, deputy prime minister also accepted that "she may have been beaten, but not because she is Hungarian" .

In August 2007, a former high-ranking police officer, Jozef Šátek, filed a complaint against Robert Fico, Robert Kaliňák and Ján Packa, claiming they abused their power in connection with Malinová's case. The complaint was dropped in September when the police concluded there was no reason to prosecute them.

In September 2007, Chief Prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka decided to replace police investigators working on the case of Malinová's alleged perjury and start the investigation again because examinations showed that Malinová's handwritten testimony was not copied accurately.

In October 2007, Tom Lantos, a Hungarian-born Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, blamed Robert Fico for creating the climate for anti-Hungarian sentiments by including "voluntarily in his coalition individuals with known ultra-nationalist, anti-Hungarian attitudes."

In December 2007, 15 months after the alleged incident, the Slovak police gave the video recordings of the initial hearing of Malinová to Roman Kvasnica, her lawyer. Several allegations of unlawful behaviour of the police emerged. They forgot to mention three police officers were also in the room throughout the hearing. The investigators stopped the recording sometimes. The hearing lasted for six hours, but the police recorded only five hours of it and released only three hours in December. Despite the police's early claims, two cameras were used for the recording instead of one.

Malinová is still accused of misleading the authority for which she may be sentenced to five years in prison.

Conspiracy theories

Malinová got into the centre of several conspiracy theories, which relate the case to the Slovak authorities or nationalists. Radio Slovakia International noted: "The victim has become the guilty party, and the question now is whether or not she will be prosecuted herself. She's been a pawn in a political game from the very beginning." ... "Thanks to the overtime put in by Bela Bugar and his ethnic-Hungarian SMK party, Malinova appears to be the victim of 'Slovak extremism', and not of a 'Hungarian game.' At this stage, we can only forgive Hedviga, but not forget those who were standing behind her the whole time."