A journalist jailed for slandering a Hungarian ultranationalist leader has appealed for amnesty from Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, the presidency said Wednesday.
Ethnic Hungarian journalist Laszlo Sas, 69, was sentenced to 150 days in jail by a court in the northern town of Subotica for "insulting" Laszlo Toroczkai in a 2007 article.
"I have been unjustly sentenced. I appeal to you to free me, as I am not guilty," Sas wrote in a letter to Nikolic.
Sas had initially been ordered to pay a 1,280-euro ($1,575) fine but was jailed when he was unable to pay it. He was sent to prison 12 days ago.
Toroczkai leads Hungary's right-wing "64 Counties Youth Movement", whose goal is a revision of a 1920 treaty defining the current borders of the Hungarian state.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned the sentence, saying Sas's imprisonment was an "aberration."
As an EU-candidate state, Serbia should protect its journalists and "ensure that their freedom to inform and comment is guaranteed," the group said.
Source: AFP
