Hungary’s supreme court has acquitted a camerawoman who was filmed tripping and kicking migrants at the border in 2015.
Petra Laszlo had been sentenced to three years’ probation for her actions by a lower court.
But the country’s top court ruled on Tuesday that she should have been charged with a misdemeanour not a criminal offence, and cleared her.
It said that her actions – which attracted international attention – were “morally incorrect and illicit”.
But, it said, with reference to the “disturbance”, her actions were not severe enough to be classed as criminal.
In the incident at the Hungary-Serbia border in September 2015, migrants and refugees had broken through a police barrier. In footage from the scene, Ms Laszlo appeared to kick a young girl and trip up a father carrying a small boy.
At the time, large numbers of people, many fleeing violence in the Middle East, were trying to reach western Europe via countries such as Hungary.
The camerawoman had been working for the right-wing Hungarian TV channel N1TV, which fired her after the footage went viral.
The father and son seen in the footage later obtained asylum in Spain, where the man was offered work as a football coach.
Source: BBC
