Esteemed General Prosecutor,

The Szekler National Council finds it unacceptable and protests against the way you and the organisation you lead has portrayed us in the indictment against Beke István Attila and Szőcs Zoltán. We also protest against the way you have criminalised the lawful autonomy aspirations of the Szekler peoples and the way you seek to turn the public opinion against the Hungarian community of Romania.

The prosecutors have violated various rules of their profession, namely article 328 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which explicitly states that indictments must be focused exclusively on the perpetrators and their actions. The Szekler National Council has no connections with the suspects in the case, nor with the actions they are accused of.

The Szekler National Council fully accepts the findings of its Standing Committee, contained in the attached statement adopted on 15 July 2015, and condemns all violent acts, or threats of violence. At the same time, we reaffirm that we seek to achieve Szeklerland’s autonomy, following the path of law and democracy, through constitutional and democratic means, as we have been doing for over ten years now.

The Szekler National Council agrees with the assessment of its Standing Committee: the indictment uses the methods of show trials, going as far as to outright falsifying evidence, and shows a strong tendency to pursue a political agenda, in order to indict the Szekler community as a whole, as well as the autonomy movement, not to mention incite hatred in the Romanian majority population against the Hungarian community and their goals.

Esteemed Chief Prosecutor!

The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism is an important institution of the rule of law, it’s professional and efficient functioning is in the best interest of all honest, peace loving citizens. To this end, it can be expected from your Institution to show a more European attitude towards the citizens of Hungarian nationality, to recognise the values that Romania has sworn to uphold after the fall of the communist dictatorship, and during the European integration. With regards to the autonomy aspirations of Szeklers’, we invite you to consider article 16 from Resolution 1334/2003 of the Council of Europe as a guiding principle: „With a view to relieving internal tensions, central government must react with understanding when minority groups, particularly when they are sizeable and have lived in an area for a long period of time, demand greater freedom to manage their own affairs independently.”

10-24-2016 Marosvásárhely Szekler National Council