Hungarian police arrest man who threatened anti-government violence

Feb 14, 2007, 13:35 GMT

Budapest - Hungarian police have arrested a man who last week appeared in a video threatening violence against police officers and governing politicians, a spokesman for Budapest police said on Wednesday.

The video, which was posted on news website index.hu, featured two men who claimed that right-wing groups were arming themselves and planning to attack government targets.

The government said last week that security services believe extremists are preparing to launch attacks on parliament and other targets in an escalation of the anti-government violence that rocked Budapest last autumn.

However, the 38-year-old man said that he was drunk when the video was made and has no recollection of making any threats.

Another man - this one masked - featured in the video, and he claimed that right-wing groups were organized in cells like Irish underground group the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and had access to automatic weapons.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of the other man, who police say they have identified.

Unknown assailants in the early hours of Tuesday morning fired an automatic weapon at the national police headquarters in Budapest, although no link has been discovered with right-wing groups.

The government has become increasingly vocal about the threat of right-wing extremists since late last year, when anti-government protestors clashed with riot police over the course of around five weeks.

The protests were triggered by the leak of a tape on which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitted lying to the nation.

The government says that there is a real threat of an attack on parliament on March 15, the anniversary of the 1848 revolution against Austrian rule.

The main right-wing opposition party Fidesz has dismissed the threat, saying the government is using it as an excuse to maintain a police cordon that has been in place around parliament since last October.