Refused to cooperate at his show trial: tried separately and hanged two months before Imre Nagy
At his April 1958 trial, final statement: 'Even had October shown nothing else, it showed the Hungarian people will not tolerate tyranny dressed in socialist guise, and will rise and sacrifice their lives for freedom and the independence of their homeland.'
A Communist lawyer from Debrecen, he was dismissed from all party posts in 1949 after questioning the basis of the László Rajk trial and later joined Imre Nagy's reform circle. During the 1956 Revolution he served as Nagy's personal secretary and head of the prime minister's secretariat; after the Soviet intervention on 4 November he took refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy and was deported to Romania. For over a year he refused to cooperate with interrogators, swore his innocence, and went on hunger strike, leading to his case being separated from the main Nagy trial. He was hanged on 24 April 1958, two months before Nagy, and reburied alongside him on Heroes' Square on 16 June 1989.
Career Timeline
- 1938–39Joined illegal CP; law doctorate, Debrecen University
- 1940–44Arrested, sentenced to 3 years; freed 1944, went underground
- 1945–46Debrecen police chief; organised national police HQ
- 1947–49Headed party military/security dept; Central Control Committee
- 1949Dismissed for questioning the Rajk trial
- 1953–56Joined Nagy reform circle; expelled from party early 1956
- 1956.10–11Nagy's personal secretary, head of PM secretariat
- 1958Tried separately; hanged 24 April