Kelemen Hunor for RFI: I believe in each person's innocence until final court decision

Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor said on Thursday that until a final court decision is issued, he believes in a person's innocence.

UDMR Chairman Kelemen Hunor
Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

"Until a final court decision, I have no reason not to believe in the innocence (of a person). The benefit of a doubt is the principle we are starting from, and not the presumption of guilt," Kelemen Hunor told the Radio France International (RFI) station in Bucharest, on Thursday, in reference to the denial by the deputies on Wednesday to agree upon the starting of a criminal investigation of former UDMR minister Laszlo Borbely.

Kelemen Hunor added that "perhaps, those who have studied the file and those who had access to the file, were not strongly certain that the denouncement which appeared in the file in addition, has any connection with the older case and that it is convincing."

The UDMR chairman says that "as regards the ministers, a filter is not a bad thing to be" at the Parliament or President.

"As regards the ministers, it is not a bad thing to have a filter in place for the former ministers-deputies, at the Parliament, for the ministers who are not parliamentarians the filter is at the President of the Republic, because any minister, regardless of the period of his tenure, might find himself with all sorts of denouncements, because there are people who are upset because they didn't get what they wanted, in particular in the economic ministries, they never got contracts, never got public works and they are upset and file denouncements. Of course, the Parliament shouldn't even say that someone is or is not guilty, but from what I saw in the Committee's report, in the...