Hungarian President resigns after controversy over pardoning child abuser

Hungarian President Katalin Novak resigns, admitting she made a mistake after her decision to pardon a man implicated in a child abuse case

Hungarian President Katalin Novak announced her resignation after it emerged she had granted a presidential pardon to a former children’s home director convicted as an accomplice in a child abuse case.

Novak, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the first woman to hold the essentially ceremonial post since March 2022, said “I resign from my post” and admitted she had made “a mistake”.

The controversy erupted after Novak, a close ally of Orban, pardoned the former deputy director of a state-run children’s home ahead of Pope Francis’ visit in April last year.

The pardoned man was sentenced to more than three years in prison in 2018 for helping to cover up the abuse of the institution’s director, who was sentenced to eight years in prison for abusing at least 10 children between 2004 and 2016.

Source: Newsroom