Audio tapes of the 1958 secret trial of Hungary's executed Prime Minister Imre Nagy started to be played in public for the first time on Monday.
The trial took place after the crushed anti-Soviet uprising of 1956 and lasted for a week. The 52-hour tapes are being played at the exact time corresponding to the original trial. The recordings will continue to be played until Sunday, as part of the week-long commemoration of the events of 1958.
Imre Nagy and three associates -- Defense Minister Pal Maleter, pro-reformist journalist Miklos Gimes, Minister of State Geza Losonczy -- were sentenced to death by hanging on charges of treason and plotting against the Soviet regime. The rehabilitation and a ceremonious reburial of Imre Nagy and the other martyrs took place in 1989.
According to reports of Hungarian News Agency MTI, Maleter's widow Judith Gyenes said after attending the public airing that it was poignant to listen to the recordings. In the recordings, Nagy was heard protesting against the closed and expedited trial and said openly that he felt like a scapegoat. Gyenes said this information was new to her.
Nagy's granddaughter Katalin Janosi and Janos M. Rainer, head of the 1956 institute, attended the airing on Monday.
The 1956 Institute, a non-governmental research institute, and the Open Society Archives lobbied for the recordings to be played in public after years of pressure to lift the veil on them.
Source:Xinhua
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