Former Top Hungarian Communist Faces New Trial Over Role In 1956 Reprisals

A 93-year-old former senior Hungarian Communist Party official convicted of war crimes last year will face a new trial after a higher court on Monday annulled his jail sentence, saying the verdict against him was unsubstantiated. In May 2014, Bela Biszku was convicted of war crimes over shootings of civilian protesters after the 1956 uprising that was crushed by Soviet tanks. A Budapest court of first instance sentenced him to five-and-a-half years' imprisonment. Biszku was charged over his role on a party committee prosecutors said was involved in ordering the shootings of several civilians during protests in Budapest and in the town of Salgotarjan in December 1956 in which dozens of people died.