European Union member states can only extradite criminals to another member when an arrest warrant is issued. As the case currently falls under Hungarian jurisdiction, the state can refuse to extradite the individuals concerned.

Hungarian authorities will refuse to extradite to Germany the German citizens from the far-left Antifa group who attacked a man in his forties in Budapest last Friday, according to information obtained by the Hungarian Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

Member states of the EU can only extradite criminals to another member if an arrest warrant has been issued, the daily writes. In this case this could only happen if Germany would launch criminal proceedings and a European arrest warrant would also be issued against the individuals concerned.

However, the daily has no information in this regard.

As the case currently falls under Hungarian jurisdiction, the state can refuse to extradite the persons concerned. If Germany were to issue arrest warrants, the Budapest Court may refuse their extradition, taking into account the criminal proceedings initiated in Hungary.

Attackers may have been members of far-left Antifa

Last Friday, a gang armed with vipers and wearing ski masks attacked a man in his 40s in Budapest’s 11th district. An employee of a tobacco shop was seriously injured. Witnesses said the man was probably on his way to work and was attacked after he got off the bus. The pool of blood found at the scene is proof of the assault. A young girl from the shop next door tried to help the man, but was unable to stop the bleeding. The victim was then taken to hospital by ambulance.

The police cordoned off the scene and, according to the employee of the neighbouring shop, two other employees of the tobacco shop were taken to the police station to be questioned as witnesses.

On Saturday, Hungarian police arrested four members of a group, made up of mostly foreigners, who attacked strangers in Budapest.

The Budapest Police HQ questioned and detained a Hungarian woman, a foreign man and two foreign women for violence against a member of a community and its preparation. The attackers were mostly German anti-fascists who mistook the man walking in the street for a far-right commemorator.