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The Hungarian cultural center after the arson attack / Photo from Ukraine’s National Police
A court in Krakow has found three Polish men with right-wing, pro-Russian leanings guilty of committing terrorist acts for their roles in firebombing a Hungarian cultural center in western Ukraine last year.
They were convicted on March 23 of torching a Hungarian-funded cultural center in Ukraine’s westernmost Zakarpattya region where more than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians reside, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported.
The mastermind, 29-year-old Michal Prokopowicz, was sentenced to three years in prison.
His accomplice, Tomasz Rafal Szymkovwiak, 23, was given two years.
A third suspect, 26-year-old Adrian Marglewski, who cooperated with investigators, was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to do community service for 40 hours a month.
A court in Krakow has found three Polish men with right-wing, pro-Russian leanings guilty of committing terrorist acts for their roles in firebombing a Hungarian cultural center in western Ukraine last year.
They were convicted on March 23 of torching a Hungarian-funded cultural center in Ukraine’s westernmost Zakarpattya region where more than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians reside.
The mastermind, 29-year-old Michal Prokopowicz, was sentenced to three years in prison.
His accomplice, Tomasz Rafal Szymkovwiak, 23, was given two years.
A third suspect, 26-year-old Adrian Marglewski, who cooperated with investigators, was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to do community service for 40 hours a month.
Prokopowicz is a member of the ultra-right, pro-Russian Zmiana party, whose founder – Mateusz Piskorski – was arrested in 2016 on suspicion of spying for Russian and China.
Szymkovwiak and Marglewski are members of the neo-Fascist Falanga group whose members have been known to have participated in the war in Ukraine’s east on the side of Russian-backed separatists.
Prokopowicz and Szymkovwiak had plead not guilty.
Read alsoRFE/RL: Berlin prosecutors investigate German journalist named in Ukraine arson attack
During the trial on January 14, Prokopowicz told the court he received instructions and money for the arson attack from a German journalist who has worked as a consultant for a German member of parliament with the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Prokopowicz named Manuel Oschsenreiter, who has denied the allegation as “false” through the lawmaker.
Oschsenreiter is known to have ties to Zmiana and is editor of the right-wing German magazine Zuerst! (First!).
